Computer implemented methods and apparatus for configuring and performing a custom rule to process a preference indication

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are systems, apparatus, methods and computer-readable media for processing a preference indication for a feed item of an information feed. In some implementations, a preference indication associated with a feed item is received. In some instances, it is determined whether the feed item is associated with a custom rule, where the custom rule defines one or more actions to modify information associated with feed items of designated one more content types. In some instances, one or more actions are selected to perform based on an identified content type of the feed item in response to the determination that the feed item is associated with the custom rule.

PRIORITY AND RELATED APPLICATION DATA

This application claims priority to co-pending and commonly assignedU.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/555,553, titled “Method forcreating Customized Secondments in a Social Network Environment”, byWong et al., filed on Nov. 4, 2011 (Attorney Docket No. 708PROV), whichis hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety and for allpurposes.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material,which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This patent document relates generally to providing on-demand servicesin an online social network using a database system and, morespecifically, to techniques for configuring and performing a preferenceindication in the online social network.

BACKGROUND

“Cloud computing” services provide shared resources, software, andinformation to computers and other devices upon request. In cloudcomputing environments, software can be accessible over the Internetrather than installed locally on in-house computer systems. Cloudcomputing typically involves over-the-Internet provision of dynamicallyscalable and often virtualized resources. Technological details can beabstracted from the users, who no longer have need for expertise in, orcontrol over, the technology infrastructure “in the cloud” that supportsthem.

Database resources can be provided in a cloud computing context.However, using conventional database management techniques, it isdifficult to know about the activity of other users of a database systemin the cloud or other network. For example, the actions of a particularuser, such as a salesperson, on a database resource may be important tothe user's boss. The user can create a report about what the user hasdone and send it to the boss, but such reports may be inefficient, nottimely, and incomplete. Also, it may be difficult to identify otherusers who might benefit from the information in the report.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The included drawings are for illustrative purposes and serve only toprovide examples of possible structures and operations for the disclosedinventive systems, apparatus, and methods for configuring and performinga custom rule to process a preference indication. These drawings in noway limit any changes in form and detail that may be made by one skilledin the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosedimplementations.

FIG. 1A shows a block diagram of an example of an environment 10 inwhich an on-demand database service can be used in accordance with someimplementations.

FIG. 1B shows a block diagram of an example of some implementations ofelements of FIG. 1A and various possible interconnections between theseelements.

FIG. 2A shows a system diagram illustrating an example of architecturalcomponents of an on-demand database service environment 200 according tosome implementations.

FIG. 2B shows a system diagram further illustrating an example ofarchitectural components of an on-demand database service environmentaccording to some implementations.

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 300 for trackingupdates to a record stored in a database system, performed in accordancewith some implementations.

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of an example of components of a databasesystem configuration 400 performing a method for tracking an update to arecord according to some implementations.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 500 for trackingactions of a user of a database system, performed in accordance withsome implementations.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 600 for creating anews feed from messages created by a user about a record or anotheruser, performed in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a group feed on a group page according tosome implementations.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a record feed containing a feed trackedupdate, post, and comments according to some implementations.

FIG. 9A shows an example of a plurality of tables that may be used intracking events and creating feeds according to some implementations.

FIG. 9B shows a flowchart of an example of a method 900 forautomatically subscribing a user to an object in a database system,performed in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 10 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1000 for savinginformation to feed tracking tables, performed in accordance with someimplementations.

FIG. 11 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1100 for reading afeed item as part of generating a feed for display, performed inaccordance with some implementations.

FIG. 12 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1200 for reading afeed item of a profile feed for display, performed in accordance withsome implementations.

FIG. 13 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1300 of storingevent information for efficient generation of feed items to display in afeed, performed in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 14 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1400 for creating acustom feed for users of a database system using filtering criteria,performed in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 15 shows a flow diagram of an example of a method 1500 forconfiguring a custom rule to process a preference indication, performedin accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 16 shows a flow diagram of a method 1600 for presenting a customrule, performed in accordance with one implementation.

FIG. 17 shows a flow diagram of an example method 1700 for processing apreference indication, performed in accordance with someimplementations.

FIG. 18 shows a flow diagram of an example method of 1800 for selectingone or more actions based on the custom rule.

FIG. 19 shows an image of a user interface for configuring a customrule, generated according to one or more implementations.

FIG. 20 shows an example of an information feed, according to someimplementations.

FIG. 21 shows an example of an information feed, according to someimplementations.

FIG. 22 shows an example of an information feed, according to someimplementations.

FIG. 23 shows an example of an information feed, according to someimplementations.

FIG. 24 provides an illustration of a custom rule stored as a computerprogram factory object to process a preference indication, according tosome implementations.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Examples of systems, apparatus, and methods according to the disclosedimplementations are described in this section. These examples are beingprovided solely to add context and aid in the understanding of thedisclosed implementations. It will thus be apparent to one skilled inthe art that implementations may be practiced without some or all ofthese specific details. In other instances, certain process/methodoperations, also referred to herein as “blocks,” have not been describedin detail in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring implementations.Other applications are possible, such that the following examples shouldnot be taken as definitive or limiting either in scope or setting.

In the following detailed description, references are made to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part of the description and in whichare shown, by way of illustration, specific implementations. Althoughthese implementations are described in sufficient detail to enable oneskilled in the art to practice the disclosed implementations, it isunderstood that these examples are not limiting, such that otherimplementations may be used and changes may be made without departingfrom their spirit and scope. For example, the blocks of methods shownand described herein are not necessarily performed in the orderindicated. It should also be understood that the methods may includemore or fewer blocks than are indicated. In some implementations, blocksdescribed herein as separate blocks may be combined. Conversely, whatmay be described herein as a single block may be implemented in multipleblocks.

Various implementations described or referenced herein are directed todifferent methods, apparatus, systems, and computer-readable storagemedia for configuring and performing custom rules on an online socialnetwork, also referred to herein as a social networking system. Oneexample of an online social network is Chatter®, provided bysalesforce.com, inc. of San Francisco, Calif. Online social networks areincreasingly becoming a common way to facilitate communication amongpeople and groups of people, any of whom can be recognized as users of asocial networking system. Some online social networks can be implementedin various settings, including organizations, e.g., enterprises such ascompanies or business partnerships, academic institutions, or groupswithin such an organization. For instance, Chatter® can be used byemployee users in a division of a business organization to share data,communicate, and collaborate with each other for various purposes.

In some online social networks, users can access one or more informationfeeds, which include information updates presented as items or entriesin the feed. Such a feed item can include a single information update ora collection of individual information updates. A feed item can includevarious types of data including character-based data, audio data, imagedata and/or video data. An information feed can be displayed in agraphical user interface (GUI) on a display device such as the displayof a computing device as described below. The information updates caninclude various social network data from various sources and can bestored in an on-demand database service environment. In someimplementations, the disclosed methods, apparatus, systems, andcomputer-readable storage media may be configured or designed for use ina multi-tenant database environment.

In some implementations, an online social network may allow a user tofollow data objects in the form of records such as cases, accounts, oropportunities, in addition to following individual users and groups ofusers. The “following” of a record stored in a database, as described ingreater detail below, allows a user to track the progress of thatrecord. Updates to the record, also referred to herein as changes to therecord, are one type of information update that can occur and be notedon an information feed such as a record feed or a news feed of a usersubscribed to the record. Examples of record updates include fieldchanges in the record, updates to the status of a record, as well as thecreation of the record itself. Some records are publicly accessible,such that any user can follow the record, while other records areprivate, for which appropriate security clearance/permissions are aprerequisite to a user following the record.

Information updates can include various types of updates, which may ormay not be linked with a particular record. For example, informationupdates can be user-submitted messages or can otherwise be generated inresponse to user actions or in response to events. Examples of messagesinclude: posts, comments, indications of a user's personal preferencessuch as “likes” and “dislikes”, updates to a user's status, uploadedfiles, and hyperlinks to social network data or other network data suchas various documents and/or web pages on the Internet. Posts can includealpha-numeric or other character-based user inputs such as words,phrases, statements, questions, emotional expressions, and/or symbols.Comments generally refer to responses to posts, such as words, phrases,statements, answers, questions, and reactionary emotional expressionsand/or symbols. Multimedia data can be included in, linked with, orattached to a post or comment. For example, a post can include textualstatements in combination with a JPEG image or animated image. A like ordislike can be submitted in response to a particular post or comment.Examples of uploaded files include presentations, documents, multimediafiles, and the like.

Users can follow a record by subscribing to the record, as mentionedabove. Users can also follow other entities such as other types of dataobjects, other users, and groups of users. Feed tracked updatesregarding such entities are one type of information update that can bereceived and included in the user's news feed. Any number of users canfollow a particular entity and thus view information updates pertainingto that entity on the users' respective news feeds. In some socialnetworks, users may follow each other by establishing connections witheach other, sometimes referred to as “friending” one another. Byestablishing such a connection, one user may be able to see informationgenerated by, generated about, or otherwise associated with anotheruser. For instance, a first user may be able to see information postedby a second user to the second user's personal social network page. Oneimplementation of such a personal social network page is a user'sprofile page, for example, in the form of a web page representing theuser's profile. In one example, when the first user is following thesecond user, the first user's news feed can receive a post from thesecond user submitted to the second user's profile feed, also referredto herein as the user's “wall,” which is one example of an informationfeed displayed on the user's profile page.

In some implementations, an information feed may be specific to a groupof users of an online social network. For instance, a group of users maypublish a news feed. Members of the group may view and post to the groupfeed in accordance with a permissions configuration for the news feedand the group. Information updates in a group context can also includechanges to group status information. In some implementations, when datasuch as posts or comments input from one or more users are submitted toan information feed for a particular user, group, object, or otherconstruct within an online social network, an e-mail notification orother type of network communication may be transmitted to all usersfollowing the user, group, or object in addition to the inclusion of thedata as a feed item in one or more feeds, such as a user's profile feed,a news feed, or a record feed. In some online social networks, theoccurrence of such a notification is limited to the first instance of apublished input, which may form part of a larger conversation. Forinstance, a notification may be transmitted for an initial post, but notfor comments on the post. In some other implementations, a separatenotification is transmitted for each such information update.

Some implementations of the disclosed systems, apparatus, and methodsprovide a mechanism to configure and perform custom rules to process apreference indication, such as a “like” or a “dislike.” A preferenceindication generally represents that a user likes or supports thecontent of a feed item. For instance, when a user, Brenda, indicatesthat she “likes” a feed item including information about Meow cat food,the system performs operations to record that Brenda “likes” Meow catfood, such as updating a database record associated with the feed item.The system may further update the feed item to include a message: “Youlike this” and/or increment the number of users who like Meow cat food.However, some conventional social networking systems do not provideadditional processing of Brenda's preference indication. For example,conventional systems do not assess whether Brenda is a veterinarian. Assuch, her endorsement of cat food may be of greater importance comparedto a user who is a cat owner. In other words, one of the shortcomings ofconventional social networking systems is that there are no mechanismsto customize how a preference indication is processed based on thecontent of a feed item and/or information associated with an entity,such as a user submitting the preference indication, a group and/or arecord.

Some of the disclosed implementations are directed to configuring andperforming custom rules to process a preference indication. As describedin the examples herein, a preference indication may be a “like,”“dislike” or any other indication that an entity endorses informationassociated with a feed item. In some implementations, a custom rule maybe configured and performed to process a preference indication based ona content type of a feed item. The content type may be a definedcategory of information that triggers the custom rule to perform one ormore actions in response to receiving a preference indication for a feeditem. For example, a content type may be specified as any feed item thatis a comment, record update, or other type of information update. Inanother example, the content type may be designated as any definedcategory of information such as music, movies, a data object,information about a project, information about a product or service,information about an organization or a feed item including specifickeywords. The content type may be designated by a user or automaticallyidentified according to various parameters by custom computerprogramming language code.

In some implementations, custom rules may be configured and performed toprocess a preference indication based on information associated with anentity. An entity may be a user, a group, a record, or other constructin the online social network, as described in the examples herein. Forexample, a custom rule may be configured to perform different actionsbased on whether a preference indication is received from a user, agroup or a record.

In another example, a custom rule may be configured to perform differentactions to process a preference indication based on an entity's profileinformation. For instance, a custom rule is configured to process apreference indication based on a user's role in a corporateorganization. If a user is a Director of a sales team at ABC Corporationand “likes” a feed item including information about a recent purchaseorder, the system may perform one or more actions to process the user's“like” based on the custom rule. In this example, the custom rule may beconfigured to create a record for the new purchase order and send acommunication (e.g., an email, an information update on a feed, a textmessage, an automated phone call, a tweet) to the members of the salesteam that the Director “liked” the purchase order. A custom rule maydesignate various types of entity information. The entity informationmay be designated by a user, defined by custom computer programminglanguage code, or created by the system.

In some implementations, custom rules may be configured and performed toprocess a preference indication based on various combinations ofinformation. For example, a custom rule may be configured to process apreference indication based on a content type of a feed item and basedon information associated with an entity.

In some implementations, one or more actions may be performed when apreference indication is detected. The action may include modifying afeed item, creating a feed item, creating or altering a data object,removing a data object, sending a message, or performing any otheraction capable of being performed by the system.

In some implementations, the one or more actions may be configured tomodify information associated with one or more related feed items.Various relevance measures may be applied to determine whether one ormore feed items are related. For instance, it may be determined whetherthe content type of one or more feed items is the same as the contenttype of the feed item that received a preference indication. If thecontent type is the same, the one or more feed items are determined tobe related and a preference indication is associated with the one ormore related feed items.

In an illustrative example, a MusicLike custom rule is configured toprocess feed items that include content about music albums. Forinstance, when Chet indicates that he “likes” Michael Jackson's Thrilleralbum, the system compares the content of the feed item and determinesthat a music album is a content type that is associated with theMusicLike rule. Then, the system performs the one or more actionsdesignated by the MusicLike rule. In this example, the system determineswhether other feed items in an information feed or in the online socialnetwork include songs from the Thriller album, such as “Thriller,”“Billie Jean” and “Beat It.” If a feed item includes a song from theThriller music album, then Chet's “like” is automatically associatedwith feed items including the songs “Thriller,” “Billie Jean” and “BeatIt.” That is, each feed item including a song from the Thriller album isupdated to indicate that Chet also “likes” the content included in thosefeed items. As such, the MusicLike rule provides a mechanism for a userto endorse one or more related feed items without requiring the user toclick on each feed item, thereby saving time and streamlining theprocess of endorsing feed items in an information feed.

Various other relevance measures may be applied to determine whether oneor more feed items are related. For example, to determine whether one ormore feed items are related, it may be determined whether an entityfollows the one or more feed items. In another example, it may bedetermined whether an entity's profile information includes informationrelated to further feed items in an information feed. As such, manyvariations and combinations of relevance measures may be applied todetermine whether one or more feed items are related as furtherdescribed herein. Such relevance measures can be weighted and comparedwith numerical thresholds to determine whether one or more feed itemsare related. The selection of relevance measures and weights applied inassociation with each relevance measure may be defined by a user,defined by custom computer programming language code, or automaticallygenerated as further described herein.

These and other implementations may be embodied in various types ofhardware, software, firmware, and combinations thereof. For example,some techniques disclosed herein may be implemented, at least in part,by computer-readable media that include program instructions, stateinformation, etc., for performing various services and operationsdescribed herein. Examples of program instructions include both machinecode, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing higher-levelcode that may be executed by a computing device such as a server orother data processing apparatus using an interpreter. Examples ofcomputer-readable media include, but are not limited to, magnetic mediasuch as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media suchas CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical media; and hardware devices that arespecially configured to store program instructions, such as read-onlymemory (“ROM”) devices and random access memory (“RAM”) devices. Theseand other features of the disclosed implementations will be described inmore detail below with reference to the associated drawings.

The term “multi-tenant database system” can refer to those systems inwhich various elements of hardware and software of a database system maybe shared by one or more customers. For example, a given applicationserver may simultaneously process requests for a great number ofcustomers, and a given database table may store rows of data such asfeed items for a potentially much greater number of customers. The term“query plan” generally refers to one or more operations used to accessinformation in a database system.

A “user profile” or “user's profile” is generally configured to storeand maintain data about a given user of the database system. The datacan include general information, such as name, title, phone number, aphoto, a biographical summary, and a status, e.g., text describing whatthe user is currently doing. As mentioned below, the data can includemessages created by other users. Where there are multiple tenants, auser is typically associated with a particular tenant. For example, auser could be a salesperson of a company, which is a tenant of thedatabase system that provides a database service.

The term “record” generally refers to a data entity, such as an instanceof a data object created by a user of the database service, for example,about a particular (actual or potential) business relationship orproject. The data object can have a data structure defined by thedatabase service (a standard object) or defined by a user (customobject). For example, a record can be for a business partner orpotential business partner (e.g., a client, vendor, distributor, etc.)of the user, and can include information describing an entire company,subsidiaries, or contacts at the company.

As another example, a record can be a project that the user is workingon, such as an opportunity (e.g., a possible sale) with an existingpartner, or a project that the user is trying to get. In oneimplementation of a multi-tenant database system, each record for thetenants has a unique identifier stored in a common table. A record hasdata fields that are defined by the structure of the object (e.g.,fields of certain data types and purposes). A record can also havecustom fields defined by a user. A field can be another record orinclude links thereto, thereby providing a parent-child relationshipbetween the records.

The terms “information feed” and “feed” are used interchangeably hereinand generally refer to a combination (e.g., a list) of feed items orentries with various types of information and data. Such feed items canbe stored and maintained in one or more database tables, e.g., as rowsin the table(s), that can be accessed to retrieve relevant informationto be presented as part of a displayed feed. The term “feed item” (orfeed element) refers to an item of information, which can be presentedin the feed such as a post submitted by a user. Feed items ofinformation about a user can be presented in a user's profile feed ofthe database, while feed items of information about a record can bepresented in a record feed in the database, by way of example. A profilefeed and a record feed are examples of different information feeds. Asecond user following a first user and a record can receive the feeditems associated with the first user and the record for display in thesecond user's news feed, which is another type of information feed. Insome implementations, the feed items from any number of followed usersand records can be combined into a single information feed of aparticular user.

As examples, a feed item can be a message, such as a user-generated postof text data, and a feed tracked update to a record or profile, such asa change to a field of the record. Feed tracked updates are described ingreater detail below. A feed can be a combination of messages and feedtracked updates. Messages include text created by a user, and mayinclude other data as well. Examples of messages include posts, userstatus updates, and comments. Messages can be created for a user'sprofile or for a record. Posts can be created by various users,potentially any user, although some restrictions can be applied. As anexample, posts can be made to a wall section of a user's profile page(which can include a number of recent posts) or a section of a recordthat includes multiple posts. The posts can be organized inchronological order when displayed in a graphical user interface (GUI),for instance, on the user's profile page, as part of the user's profilefeed. In contrast to a post, a user status update changes a status of auser and can be made by that user or an administrator. A record can alsohave a status, the update of which can be provided by an owner of therecord or other users having suitable write access permissions to therecord. The owner can be a single user, multiple users, or a group. Inone implementation, there is only one status for a record.

In some implementations, a comment can be made on any feed item. In someimplementations, comments are organized as a list explicitly tied to aparticular feed tracked update, post, or status update. In someimplementations, comments may not be listed in the first layer (in ahierarchal sense) of feed items, but listed as a second layer branchingfrom a particular first layer feed item.

A “feed tracked update,” also referred to herein as a “feed update,” isone type of information update and generally refers to data representingan event. A feed tracked update can include text generated by thedatabase system in response to the event, to be provided as one or morefeed items for possible inclusion in one or more feeds. In oneimplementation, the data can initially be stored, and then the databasesystem can later use the data to create text for describing the event.Both the data and/or the text can be a feed tracked update, as usedherein. In various implementations, an event can be an update of arecord and/or can be triggered by a specific action by a user. Whichactions trigger an event can be configurable. Which events have feedtracked updates created and which feed updates are sent to which userscan also be configurable. Messages and feed updates can be stored as afield or child object of the record. For example, the feed can be storedas a child object of the record.

A “group” is generally a collection of users. In some implementations,the group may be defined as users with a same or similar attribute, orby membership. In some implementations, a “group feed”, also referred toherein as a “group news feed”, includes any feed item about any user inthe group. In some implementations, the group feed includes feed itemsthat are about the group as a whole. In one implementation, the feeditems for a group are only posts and comments.

An “entity feed” or “record feed” generally refers to a feed of feeditems about a particular record in the database, such as feed trackedupdates about changes to the record and posts made by users about therecord. An entity feed can be composed of any type of feed item. Such afeed can be displayed on a page such as a web page associated with therecord, e.g., a home page of the record. As used herein, a “profilefeed” or “user's profile feed” is a feed of feed items about aparticular user. In one example, the feed items for a profile feedinclude posts and comments that other users make about or send to theparticular user, and status updates made by the particular user. Such aprofile feed can be displayed on a page associated with the particularuser. In another example, feed items in a profile feed could includeposts made by the particular user and feed tracked updates initiatedbased on actions of the particular user.

I. General Overview

Systems, apparatus, and methods are provided for implementing enterpriselevel social and business information networking. Such implementationscan provide more efficient use of a database system. For instance, auser of a database system may not easily know when important informationin the database has changed, e.g., about a project or client.Implementations can provide feed tracked updates about such changes andother events, thereby keeping users informed.

By way of example, a user can update a record, e.g., an opportunity suchas a possible sale of 1000 computers. Once the record update has beenmade, a feed tracked update about the record update can thenautomatically be provided, e.g., in a feed, to anyone subscribing to theopportunity or to the user. Thus, the user does not need to contact amanager regarding the change in the opportunity, since the feed trackedupdate about the update is sent via a feed right to the manager's feedpage or other page.

Next, mechanisms and methods for providing systems implementingenterprise level social and business information networking will bedescribed with reference to several implementations. First, an overviewof an example of a database system is described, and then examples oftracking events for a record, actions of a user, and messages about auser or record are described. Various implementations about the datastructure of feeds, customizing feeds, user selection of records andusers to follow, generating feeds, and displaying feeds are alsodescribed.

II. System Overview

FIG. 1A shows a block diagram of an example of an environment 10 inwhich an on-demand database service can be used in accordance with someimplementations. Environment 10 may include user systems 12, network 14,database system 16, processor system 17, application platform 18,network interface 20, tenant data storage 22, system data storage 24,program code 26, and process space 28. In other implementations,environment 10 may not have all of these components and/or may haveother components instead of, or in addition to, those listed above.

Environment 10 is an environment in which an on-demand database serviceexists. User system 12 may be implemented as any computing device(s) orother data processing apparatus such as a machine or system that is usedby a user to access a database system 16. For example, any of usersystems 12 can be a handheld computing device, a mobile phone, a laptopcomputer, a work station, and/or a network of such computing devices. Asillustrated in FIG. 1A (and in more detail in FIG. 1B) user systems 12might interact via a network 14 with an on-demand database service,which is implemented in the example of FIG. 1A as database system 16.

An on-demand database service, implemented using system 16 by way ofexample, is a service that is made available to outside users, who donot need to necessarily be concerned with building and/or maintainingthe database system. Instead, the database system may be available fortheir use when the users need the database system, i.e., on the demandof the users. Some on-demand database services may store informationfrom one or more tenants into tables of a common database image to forma multi-tenant database system (MTS). A database image may include oneor more database objects. A relational database management system(RDBMS) or the equivalent may execute storage and retrieval ofinformation against the database object(s). Application platform 18 maybe a framework that allows the applications of system 16 to run, such asthe hardware and/or software, e.g., the operating system. In someimplementations, application platform 18 enables creation, managing andexecuting one or more applications developed by the provider of theon-demand database service, users accessing the on-demand databaseservice via user systems 12, or third party application developersaccessing the on-demand database service via user systems 12.

The users of user systems 12 may differ in their respective capacities,and the capacity of a particular user system 12 might be entirelydetermined by permissions (permission levels) for the current user. Forexample, where a salesperson is using a particular user system 12 tointeract with system 16, that user system has the capacities allotted tothat salesperson. However, while an administrator is using that usersystem to interact with system 16, that user system has the capacitiesallotted to that administrator. In systems with a hierarchical rolemodel, users at one permission level may have access to applications,data, and database information accessible by a lower permission leveluser, but may not have access to certain applications, databaseinformation, and data accessible by a user at a higher permission level.Thus, different users will have different capabilities with regard toaccessing and modifying application and database information, dependingon a user's security or permission level, also called authorization.

Network 14 is any network or combination of networks of devices thatcommunicate with one another. For example, network 14 can be any one orany combination of a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network),telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network, starnetwork, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriateconfiguration. Network 14 can include a TCP/IP (Transfer ControlProtocol and Internet Protocol) network, such as the global internetworkof networks often referred to as the “Internet” with a capital “I.” TheInternet will be used in many of the examples herein. However, it shouldbe understood that the networks that the present implementations mightuse are not so limited, although TCP/IP is a frequently implementedprotocol.

User systems 12 might communicate with system 16 using TCP/IP and, at ahigher network level, use other common Internet protocols tocommunicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTPis used, user system 12 might include an HTTP client commonly referredto as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP signals to and from anHTTP server at system 16. Such an HTTP server might be implemented asthe sole network interface 20 between system 16 and network 14, butother techniques might be used as well or instead. In someimplementations, the network interface 20 between system 16 and network14 includes load sharing functionality, such as round-robin HTTP requestdistributors to balance loads and distribute incoming HTTP requestsevenly over a plurality of servers. At least for users accessing system16, each of the plurality of servers has access to the MTS' data;however, other alternative configurations may be used instead.

In one implementation, system 16, shown in FIG. 1A, implements aweb-based customer relationship management (CRM) system. For example, inone implementation, system 16 includes application servers configured toimplement and execute CRM software applications as well as providerelated data, code, forms, web pages and other information to and fromuser systems 12 and to store to, and retrieve from, a database systemrelated data, objects, and Webpage content. With a multi-tenant system,data for multiple tenants may be stored in the same physical databaseobject in tenant data storage 22, however, tenant data typically isarranged in the storage medium(s) of tenant data storage 22 so that dataof one tenant is kept logically separate from that of other tenants sothat one tenant does not have access to another tenant's data, unlesssuch data is expressly shared. In certain implementations, system 16implements applications other than, or in addition to, a CRMapplication. For example, system 16 may provide tenant access tomultiple hosted (standard and custom) applications, including a CRMapplication. User (or third party developer) applications, which may ormay not include CRM, may be supported by the application platform 18,which manages creation, storage of the applications into one or moredatabase objects and executing of the applications in a virtual machinein the process space of the system 16.

One arrangement for elements of system 16 is shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B,including a network interface 20, application platform 18, tenant datastorage 22 for tenant data 23, system data storage 24 for system data 25accessible to system 16 and possibly multiple tenants, program code 26for implementing various functions of system 16, and a process space 28for executing MTS system processes and tenant-specific processes, suchas running applications as part of an application hosting service.Additional processes that may execute on system 16 include databaseindexing processes.

Several elements in the system shown in FIG. 1A include conventional,well-known elements that are explained only briefly here. For example,each user system 12 could include a desktop personal computer,workstation, laptop, PDA, cell phone, or any wireless access protocol(WAP) enabled device or any other computing device capable ofinterfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other networkconnection. The term “computing device” is also referred to hereinsimply as a “computer”. User system 12 typically runs an HTTP client,e.g., a browsing program, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser,Netscape's Navigator browser, Opera's browser, or a WAP-enabled browserin the case of a cell phone, PDA or other wireless device, or the like,allowing a user (e.g., subscriber of the multi-tenant database system)of user system 12 to access, process and view information, pages andapplications available to it from system 16 over network 14. Each usersystem 12 also typically includes one or more user interface devices,such as a keyboard, a mouse, trackball, touch pad, touch screen, pen orthe like, for interacting with a graphical user interface (GUI) providedby the browser on a display (e.g., a monitor screen, LCD display, etc.)of the computing device in conjunction with pages, forms, applicationsand other information provided by system 16 or other systems or servers.For example, the user interface device can be used to access data andapplications hosted by system 16, and to perform searches on storeddata, and otherwise allow a user to interact with various GUI pages thatmay be presented to a user. As discussed above, implementations aresuitable for use with the Internet, although other networks can be usedinstead of or in addition to the Internet, such as an intranet, anextranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network,any LAN or WAN or the like.

According to one implementation, each user system 12 and all of itscomponents are operator configurable using applications, such as abrowser, including computer code run using a central processing unitsuch as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly, system 16(and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present) andall of its components might be operator configurable usingapplication(s) including computer code to run using processor system 17,which may be implemented to include a central processing unit, which mayinclude an Intel Pentium® processor or the like, and/or multipleprocessor units. Non-transitory computer-readable media can haveinstructions stored thereon/in, that can be executed by or used toprogram a computing device to perform any of the methods of theimplementations described herein. Computer program code 26 implementinginstructions for operating and configuring system 16 to intercommunicateand to process web pages, applications and other data and media contentas described herein is preferably downloadable and stored on a harddisk, but the entire program code, or portions thereof, may also bestored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory medium or device asis well known, such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on any media capable ofstoring program code, such as any type of rotating media includingfloppy disks, optical discs, digital versatile disk (DVD), compact disk(CD), microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, and magnetic or opticalcards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs), or any other typeof computer-readable medium or device suitable for storing instructionsand/or data. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof,may be transmitted and downloaded from a software source over atransmission medium, e.g., over the Internet, or from another server, asis well known, or transmitted over any other conventional networkconnection as is well known (e.g., extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using anycommunication medium and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet,etc.) as are well known. It will also be appreciated that computer codefor the disclosed implementations can be realized in any programminglanguage that can be executed on a client system and/or server or serversystem such as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any other markup language,Java™, JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scripting language, such asVBScript, and many other programming languages as are well known may beused. (Java™ is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.).

According to some implementations, each system 16 is configured toprovide web pages, forms, applications, data and media content to user(client) systems 12 to support the access by user systems 12 as tenantsof system 16. As such, system 16 provides security mechanisms to keepeach tenant's data separate unless the data is shared. If more than oneMTS is used, they may be located in close proximity to one another(e.g., in a server farm located in a single building or campus), or theymay be distributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one ormore servers located in city A and one or more servers located in cityB). As used herein, each MTS could include one or more logically and/orphysically connected servers distributed locally or across one or moregeographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” is meant to referto a computing device or system, including processing hardware andprocess space(s), an associated storage medium such as a memory deviceor database, and, in some instances, a database application (e.g.,OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art. It should also beunderstood that “server system” and “server” are often usedinterchangeably herein. Similarly, the database objects described hereincan be implemented as single databases, a distributed database, acollection of distributed databases, a database with redundant online oroffline backups or other redundancies, etc., and might include adistributed database or storage network and associated processingintelligence.

FIG. 1B shows a block diagram of an example of some implementations ofelements of FIG. 1A and various possible interconnections between theseelements. That is, FIG. 1B also illustrates environment 10. However, inFIG. 1B elements of system 16 and various interconnections in someimplementations are further illustrated. FIG. 1B shows that user system12 may include processor system 12A, memory system 12B, input system12C, and output system 12D. FIG. 1B shows network 14 and system 16. FIG.1B also shows that system 16 may include tenant data storage 22, tenantdata 23, system data storage 24, system data 25, User Interface (UI) 30,Application Program Interface (API) 32, PL/SOQL 34, save routines 36,application setup mechanism 38, applications servers 1001-100N, systemprocess space 102, tenant process spaces 104, tenant management processspace 110, tenant storage space 112, user storage 114, and applicationmetadata 116. In other implementations, environment 10 may not have thesame elements as those listed above and/or may have other elementsinstead of, or in addition to, those listed above.

User system 12, network 14, system 16, tenant data storage 22, andsystem data storage 24 were discussed above in FIG. 1A. Regarding usersystem 12, processor system 12A may be any combination of one or moreprocessors. Memory system 12B may be any combination of one or morememory devices, short term, and/or long term memory. Input system 12Cmay be any combination of input devices, such as one or more keyboards,mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras, and/or interfaces to networks.Output system 12D may be any combination of output devices, such as oneor more monitors, printers, and/or interfaces to networks. As shown byFIG. 1B, system 16 may include a network interface 20 (of FIG. 1A)implemented as a set of HTTP application servers 100, an applicationplatform 18, tenant data storage 22, and system data storage 24. Alsoshown is system process space 102, including individual tenant processspaces 104 and a tenant management process space 110. Each applicationserver 100 may be configured to communicate with tenant data storage 22and the tenant data 23 therein, and system data storage 24 and thesystem data 25 therein to serve requests of user systems 12. The tenantdata 23 might be divided into individual tenant storage spaces 112,which can be either a physical arrangement and/or a logical arrangementof data. Within each tenant storage space 112, user storage 114 andapplication metadata 116 might be similarly allocated for each user. Forexample, a copy of a user's most recently used (MRU) items might bestored to user storage 114. Similarly, a copy of MRU items for an entireorganization that is a tenant might be stored to tenant storage space112. A UI 30 provides a user interface and an API 32 provides anapplication programmer interface to system 16 resident processes tousers and/or developers at user systems 12. The tenant data and thesystem data may be stored in various databases, such as one or moreOracle databases.

Application platform 18 includes an application setup mechanism 38 thatsupports application developers' creation and management ofapplications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage 22by save routines 36 for execution by subscribers as one or more tenantprocess spaces 104 managed by tenant management process 110 for example.Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL 34 thatprovides a programming language style interface extension to API 32. Adetailed description of some PL/SOQL language implementations isdiscussed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,478, titled METHODAND SYSTEM FOR ALLOWING ACCESS TO DEVELOPED APPLICATIONS VIA AMULTI-TENANT ON-DEMAND DATABASE SERVICE, by Craig Weissman, issued onJun. 1, 2010, and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety andfor all purposes. Invocations to applications may be detected by one ormore system processes, which manage retrieving application metadata 116for the subscriber making the invocation and executing the metadata asan application in a virtual machine.

Each application server 100 may be communicably coupled to databasesystems, e.g., having access to system data 25 and tenant data 23, via adifferent network connection. For example, one application server 1001might be coupled via the network 14 (e.g., the Internet), anotherapplication server 100N−1 might be coupled via a direct network link,and another application server 100N might be coupled by yet a differentnetwork connection. Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol(TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicating between applicationservers 100 and the database system. However, it will be apparent to oneskilled in the art that other transport protocols may be used tooptimize the system depending on the network interconnect used.

In certain implementations, each application server 100 is configured tohandle requests for any user associated with any organization that is atenant. Because it is desirable to be able to add and remove applicationservers from the server pool at any time for any reason, there ispreferably no server affinity for a user and/or organization to aspecific application server 100. In one implementation, therefore, aninterface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5Big-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between the applicationservers 100 and the user systems 12 to distribute requests to theapplication servers 100. In one implementation, the load balancer uses aleast connections algorithm to route user requests to the applicationservers 100. Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as roundrobin and observed response time, also can be used. For example, incertain implementations, three consecutive requests from the same usercould hit three different application servers 100, and three requestsfrom different users could hit the same application server 100. In thismanner, by way of example, system 16 is multi-tenant, wherein system 16handles storage of, and access to, different objects, data andapplications across disparate users and organizations.

As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs asales force where each salesperson uses system 16 to manage their salesprocess. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data, customerfollow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data, etc., allapplicable to that user's personal sales process (e.g., in tenant datastorage 22). In an example of a MTS arrangement, since all of the dataand the applications to access, view, modify, report, transmit,calculate, etc., can be maintained and accessed by a user system havingnothing more than network access, the user can manage his or her salesefforts and cycles from any of many different user systems. For example,if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customer has Internetaccess in their lobby, the salesperson can obtain critical updates as tothat customer while waiting for the customer to arrive in the lobby.

While each user's data might be separate from other users' dataregardless of the employers of each user, some data might beorganization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users orall of the users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, theremight be some data structures managed by system 16 that are allocated atthe tenant level while other data structures might be managed at theuser level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants includingpossible competitors, the MTS should have security protocols that keepdata, applications, and application use separate. Also, because manytenants may opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their ownsystem, redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions thatmay be implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data andtenant-specific data, system 16 might also maintain system level datausable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data mightinclude industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharableamong tenants.

In certain implementations, user systems 12 (which may be clientsystems) communicate with application servers 100 to request and updatesystem-level and tenant-level data from system 16 that may involvesending one or more queries to tenant data storage 22 and/or system datastorage 24. System 16 (e.g., an application server 100 in system 16)automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g., one or moreSQL queries) that are designed to access the desired information. Systemdata storage 24 may generate query plans to access the requested datafrom the database.

Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, suchas a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefinedcategories. A “table” is one representation of a data object, and may beused herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and customobjects according to some implementations. It should be understood that“table” and “object” may be used interchangeably herein. Each tablegenerally contains one or more data categories logically arranged ascolumns or fields in a viewable schema. Each row or record of a tablecontains an instance of data for each category defined by the fields.For example, a CRM database may include a table that describes acustomer with fields for basic contact information such as name,address, phone number, fax number, etc. Another table might describe apurchase order, including fields for information such as customer,product, sale price, date, etc. In some multi-tenant database systems,standard entity tables might be provided for use by all tenants. For CRMdatabase applications, such standard entities might include tables forcase, account, contact, lead, and opportunity data objects, eachcontaining pre-defined fields. It should be understood that the word“entity” may also be used interchangeably herein with “object” and“table”.

In some multi-tenant database systems, tenants may be allowed to createand store custom objects, or they may be allowed to customize standardentities or objects, for example by creating custom fields for standardobjects, including custom index fields. Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No.7,779,039, titled CUSTOM ENTITIES AND FIELDS IN A MULTI-TENANT DATABASESYSTEM, by Weissman et al., issued on Aug. 17, 2010, and herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety and for all purposes, teachessystems and methods for creating custom objects as well as customizingstandard objects in a multi-tenant database system. In certainimplementations, for example, all custom entity data rows are stored ina single multi-tenant physical table, which may contain multiple logicaltables per organization. It is transparent to customers that theirmultiple “tables” are in fact stored in one large table or that theirdata may be stored in the same table as the data of other customers.

FIG. 2A shows a system diagram illustrating an example of architecturalcomponents of an on-demand database service environment 200 according tosome implementations. A client machine located in the cloud 204,generally referring to one or more networks in combination, as describedherein, may communicate with the on-demand database service environmentvia one or more edge routers 208 and 212. A client machine can be any ofthe examples of user systems 12 described above. The edge routers maycommunicate with one or more core switches 220 and 224 via firewall 216.The core switches may communicate with a load balancer 228, which maydistribute server load over different pods, such as the pods 240 and244. The pods 240 and 244, which may each include one or more serversand/or other computing resources, may perform data processing and otheroperations used to provide on-demand services. Communication with thepods may be conducted via pod switches 232 and 236. Components of theon-demand database service environment may communicate with a databasestorage 256 via a database firewall 248 and a database switch 252.

As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, accessing an on-demand database serviceenvironment may involve communications transmitted among a variety ofdifferent hardware and/or software components. Further, the on-demanddatabase service environment 200 is a simplified representation of anactual on-demand database service environment. For example, while onlyone or two devices of each type are shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, someimplementations of an on-demand database service environment may includeanywhere from one to many devices of each type. Also, the on-demanddatabase service environment need not include each device shown in FIGS.2A and 2B, or may include additional devices not shown in FIGS. 2A and2B.

Moreover, one or more of the devices in the on-demand database serviceenvironment 200 may be implemented on the same physical device or ondifferent hardware. Some devices may be implemented using hardware or acombination of hardware and software. Thus, terms such as “dataprocessing apparatus,” “machine,” “server” and “device” as used hereinare not limited to a single hardware device, but rather include anyhardware and software configured to provide the described functionality.

The cloud 204 is intended to refer to a data network or plurality ofdata networks, often including the Internet. Client machines located inthe cloud 204 may communicate with the on-demand database serviceenvironment to access services provided by the on-demand databaseservice environment. For example, client machines may access theon-demand database service environment to retrieve, store, edit, and/orprocess information.

In some implementations, the edge routers 208 and 212 route packetsbetween the cloud 204 and other components of the on-demand databaseservice environment 200. The edge routers 208 and 212 may employ theBorder Gateway Protocol (BGP). The BGP is the core routing protocol ofthe Internet. The edge routers 208 and 212 may maintain a table of IPnetworks or ‘prefixes’, which designate network reachability amongautonomous systems on the Internet.

In one or more implementations, the firewall 216 may protect the innercomponents of the on-demand database service environment 200 fromInternet traffic. The firewall 216 may block, permit, or deny access tothe inner components of the on-demand database service environment 200based upon a set of rules and other criteria. The firewall 216 may actas one or more of a packet filter, an application gateway, a statefulfilter, a proxy server, or any other type of firewall.

In some implementations, the core switches 220 and 224 are high-capacityswitches that transfer packets within the on-demand database serviceenvironment 200. The core switches 220 and 224 may be configured asnetwork bridges that quickly route data between different componentswithin the on-demand database service environment. In someimplementations, the use of two or more core switches 220 and 224 mayprovide redundancy and/or reduced latency.

In some implementations, the pods 240 and 244 may perform the core dataprocessing and service functions provided by the on-demand databaseservice environment. Each pod may include various types of hardwareand/or software computing resources. An example of the pod architectureis discussed in greater detail with reference to FIG. 2B.

In some implementations, communication between the pods 240 and 244 maybe conducted via the pod switches 232 and 236. The pod switches 232 and236 may facilitate communication between the pods 240 and 244 and clientmachines located in the cloud 204, for example via core switches 220 and224. Also, the pod switches 232 and 236 may facilitate communicationbetween the pods 240 and 244 and the database storage 256.

In some implementations, the load balancer 228 may distribute workloadbetween the pods 240 and 244. Balancing the on-demand service requestsbetween the pods may assist in improving the use of resources,increasing throughput, reducing response times, and/or reducingoverhead. The load balancer 228 may include multilayer switches toanalyze and forward traffic.

In some implementations, access to the database storage 256 may beguarded by a database firewall 248. The database firewall 248 may act asa computer application firewall operating at the database applicationlayer of a protocol stack. The database firewall 248 may protect thedatabase storage 256 from application attacks such as structure querylanguage (SQL) injection, database rootkits, and unauthorizedinformation disclosure.

In some implementations, the database firewall 248 may include a hostusing one or more forms of reverse proxy services to proxy trafficbefore passing it to a gateway router. The database firewall 248 mayinspect the contents of database traffic and block certain content ordatabase requests. The database firewall 248 may work on the SQLapplication level atop the TCP/IP stack, managingapplications'connection to the database or SQL management interfaces aswell as intercepting and enforcing packets traveling to or from adatabase network or application interface.

In some implementations, communication with the database storage 256 maybe conducted via the database switch 252. The multi-tenant databasestorage 256 may include more than one hardware and/or softwarecomponents for handling database queries. Accordingly, the databaseswitch 252 may direct database queries transmitted by other componentsof the on-demand database service environment (e.g., the pods 240 and244) to the correct components within the database storage 256.

In some implementations, the database storage 256 is an on-demanddatabase system shared by many different organizations. The on-demanddatabase system may employ a multi-tenant approach, a virtualizedapproach, or any other type of database approach. An on-demand databasesystem is discussed in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 1A and 1B.

FIG. 2B shows a system diagram further illustrating an example ofarchitectural components of an on-demand database service environmentaccording to some implementations. The pod 244 may be used to renderservices to a user of the on-demand database service environment 200. Insome implementations, each pod may include a variety of servers and/orother systems. The pod 244 includes one or more content batch servers264, content search servers 268, query servers 282, file force servers286, access control system (ACS) servers 280, batch servers 284, and appservers 288. Also, the pod 244 includes database instances 290, quickfile systems (QFS) 292, and indexers 294. In one or moreimplementations, some or all communication between the servers in thepod 244 may be transmitted via the switch 236.

In some implementations, the app servers 288 may include a hardwareand/or software framework dedicated to the execution of procedures(e.g., programs, routines, scripts) for supporting the construction ofapplications provided by the on-demand database service environment 200via the pod 244. In some implementations, the hardware and/or softwareframework of an app server 288 is configured to execute operations ofthe services described herein, including performance of the blocks ofmethods described with reference to FIGS. 15-24. In alternativeimplementations, two or more app servers 288 may be included andcooperate to perform such methods, or one or more other serversdescribed herein can be configured to perform the disclosed methods.

The content batch servers 264 may handle requests internal to the pod.These requests may be long-running and/or not tied to a particularcustomer. For example, the content batch servers 264 may handle requestsrelated to log mining, cleanup work, and maintenance tasks.

The content search servers 268 may provide query and indexer functions.For example, the functions provided by the content search servers 268may allow users to search through content stored in the on-demanddatabase service environment.

The file force servers 286 may manage requests for information stored inthe Fileforce storage 298. The Fileforce storage 298 may storeinformation such as documents, images, and basic large objects (BLOBs).By managing requests for information using the file force servers 286,the image footprint on the database may be reduced.

The query servers 282 may be used to retrieve information from one ormore file systems. For example, the query system 282 may receiverequests for information from the app servers 288 and then transmitinformation queries to the NFS 296 located outside the pod.

The pod 244 may share a database instance 290 configured as amulti-tenant environment in which different organizations share accessto the same database. Additionally, services rendered by the pod 244 maycall upon various hardware and/or software resources. In someimplementations, the ACS servers 280 may control access to data,hardware resources, or software resources.

In some implementations, the batch servers 284 may process batch jobs,which are used to run tasks at specified times. Thus, the batch servers284 may transmit instructions to other servers, such as the app servers288, to trigger the batch jobs.

In some implementations, the QFS 292 may be an open source file systemavailable from Sun Microsystems® of Santa Clara, Calif. The QFS mayserve as a rapid-access file system for storing and accessinginformation available within the pod 244. The QFS 292 may support somevolume management capabilities, allowing many disks to be groupedtogether into a file system. File system metadata can be kept on aseparate set of disks, which may be useful for streaming applicationswhere long disk seeks cannot be tolerated. Thus, the QFS system maycommunicate with one or more content search servers 268 and/or indexers294 to identify, retrieve, move, and/or update data stored in thenetwork file systems 296 and/or other storage systems.

In some implementations, one or more query servers 282 may communicatewith the NFS 296 to retrieve and/or update information stored outside ofthe pod 244. The NFS 296 may allow servers located in the pod 244 toaccess information to access files over a network in a manner similar tohow local storage is accessed.

In some implementations, queries from the query servers 222 may betransmitted to the NFS 296 via the load balancer 228, which maydistribute resource requests over various resources available in theon-demand database service environment. The NFS 296 may also communicatewith the QFS 292 to update the information stored on the NFS 296 and/orto provide information to the QFS 292 for use by servers located withinthe pod 244.

In some implementations, the pod may include one or more databaseinstances 290. The database instance 290 may transmit information to theQFS 292. When information is transmitted to the QFS, it may be availablefor use by servers within the pod 244 without using an additionaldatabase call.

In some implementations, database information may be transmitted to theindexer 294. Indexer 294 may provide an index of information availablein the database 290 and/or QFS 292. The index information may beprovided to file force servers 286 and/or the QFS 292.

III. Tracking Updates to a Record Stored in a Database

As multiple users might be able to change the data of a record, it canbe useful for certain users to be notified when a record is updated.Also, even if a user does not have authority to change a record, theuser still might want to know when there is an update to the record. Forexample, a vendor may negotiate a new price with a salesperson ofcompany X, where the salesperson is a user associated with tenant Y. Aspart of creating a new invoice or for accounting purposes, thesalesperson can change the price saved in the database. It may beimportant for co-workers to know that the price has changed. Thesalesperson could send an e-mail to certain people, but this is onerousand the salesperson might not e-mail all of the people who need to knowor want to know. Accordingly, some implementations of the disclosedtechniques can inform others (e.g., co-workers) who want to know aboutan update to a record automatically.

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 300 for trackingupdates to a record stored in a database system, performed in accordancewith some implementations. Method 300 (and other methods describedherein) may be implemented at least partially with multi-tenant databasesystem 16, e.g., by one or more processors configured to receive orretrieve information, process the information, store results, andtransmit the results. In other implementations, method 300 may beimplemented at least partially with a single tenant database system. Invarious implementations, blocks may be omitted, combined, or split intoadditional blocks for method 300, as well as for other methods describedherein.

In block 310, the database system receives a request to update a firstrecord. In one implementation, the request is received from a firstuser. For example, a user may be accessing a page associated with thefirst record, and may change a displayed field and hit save. In anotherimplementation, the database system can automatically create therequest. For instance, the database system can create the request inresponse to another event, e.g., a request to change a field could besent periodically at a particular date and/or time of day, or a changeto another field or object. The database system can obtain a new valuebased on other fields of a record and/or based on parameters in thesystem.

The request for the update of a field of a record is an example of anevent associated with the first record for which a feed tracked updatemay be created. In other implementations, the database system canidentify other events besides updates to fields of a record. Forexample, an event can be a submission of approval to change a field.Such an event can also have an associated field (e.g., a field showing astatus of whether a change has been submitted). Other examples of eventscan include creation of a record, deletion of a record, converting arecord from one type to another (e.g., converting a lead to anopportunity), closing a record (e.g., a case type record), andpotentially any other state change of a record—any of which couldinclude a field change associated with the state change. Any of theseevents update the record whether by changing a field of the record, astate of the record, or some other characteristic or property of therecord. In one implementation, a list of supported events for creating afeed tracked update can be maintained within the database system, e.g.,at a server or in a database.

In block 320, the database system writes new data to the first record.In one implementation, the new data may include a new value thatreplaces old data. For example, a field is updated with a new value. Inanother implementation, the new data can be a value for a field that didnot contain data before. In yet another implementation, the new datacould be a flag, e.g., for a status of the record, which can be storedas a field of the record.

In some implementations, a “field” can also include records, which arechild objects of the first record in a parent-child hierarchy. A fieldcan alternatively include a pointer to a child record. A child objectitself can include further fields. Thus, if a field of a child object isupdated with a new value, the parent record also can be considered tohave a field changed. In one example, a field could be a list of relatedchild objects, also called a related list.

In block 330, a feed tracked update is generated about the update to therecord. In one implementation, the feed tracked update is created inparts for assembling later into a display version. For example, evententries can be created and tracked in a first table, and changed fieldentries can be tracked in another table that is cross-referenced withthe first table. More specifics of such implementations are providedlater, e.g., with respect to FIG. 9A. In another implementation, thefeed tracked update is automatically generated by the database system.The feed tracked update can convey in words that the first record hasbeen updated and provide details about what was updated in the recordand who performed the update. In some implementations, a feed trackedupdate is generated for only certain types of event and/or updatesassociated with the first record.

In one implementation, a tenant (e.g., through an administrator) canconfigure the database system to create (enable) feed tracked updatesonly for certain types of records. For example, an administrator canspecify that records of designated types such as accounts andopportunities are enabled. When an update (or other event) is receivedfor the enabled record type, then a feed tracked update would begenerated. In another implementation, a tenant can also specify thefields of a record whose changes are to be tracked, and for which feedtracked updates are created. In one aspect, a maximum number of fieldscan be specified for tracking, and may include custom fields. In oneimplementation, the type of change can also be specified, for example,that the value change of a field is to be larger than a threshold (e.g.,an absolute amount or a percentage change). In yet anotherimplementation, a tenant can specify which events are to cause ageneration of a feed tracked update. Also, in one implementation,individual users can specify configurations specific to them, which cancreate custom feeds as described in more detail below.

In one implementation, changes to fields of a child object are nottracked to create feed tracked updates for the parent record. In anotherimplementation, the changes to fields of a child object can be trackedto create feed tracked updates for the parent record. For example, achild object of the parent type can be specified for tracking, andcertain fields of the child object can be specified for tracking. Asanother example, if the child object is of a type specified fortracking, then a tracked change for the child object is propagated toparent records of the child object.

In block 340, the feed tracked update is added to a feed for the firstrecord. In one implementation, adding the feed tracked update to a feedcan include adding events to a table (which may be specific to a recordor be for all or a group of objects), where a display version of a feedtracked update can be generated dynamically and presented in a GUI as afeed item when a user requests a feed for the first record. In anotherimplementation, a display version of a feed tracked update can be addedwhen a record feed is stored and maintained for a record. As mentionedabove, a feed may be maintained for only certain records. In oneimplementation, the feed of a record can be stored in the databaseassociated with the record. For example, the feed can be stored as afield (e.g., as a child object) of the record. Such a field can store apointer to the text to be displayed for the feed tracked update.

In some implementations, only the current feed tracked update (or othercurrent feed item) may be kept or temporarily stored, e.g., in sometemporary memory structure. For example, a feed tracked update for onlya most recent change to any particular field is kept. In otherimplementations, many previous feed tracked updates may be kept in thefeed. A time and/or date for each feed tracked update can be tracked.Herein, a feed of a record is also referred to as an entity feed, as arecord is an instance of a particular entity object of the database.

In block 350, followers of the first record can be identified. Afollower is a user following the first record, such as a subscriber tothe feed of the first record. In one implementation, when a userrequests a feed of a particular record, such an identification of block350 can be omitted. In another implementation where a record feed ispushed to a user (e.g., as part of a news feed), then the user can beidentified as a follower of the first record. Accordingly, this blockcan include the identification of records and other objects beingfollowed by a particular user.

In one implementation, the database system can store a list of thefollowers for a particular record. In various implementations, the listcan be stored with the first record or associated with the record usingan identifier (e.g., a pointer) to retrieve the list. For example, thelist can be stored in a field of the first record. In anotherimplementation, a list of the records that a user is following is used.In one implementation, the database system can have a routine that runsfor each user, where the routine polls the records in the list todetermine if a new feed tracked update has been added to a feed of therecord. In another implementation, the routine for the user can berunning at least partially on a user device, which contacts the databaseto perform the polling.

In block 360, in one implementation, the feed tracked update can bestored in a table, as described in greater detail below. When the useropens a feed, an appropriate query is sent to one or more tables toretrieve updates to records, also described in greater detail below. Insome implementations, the feed shows feed tracked updates in reversechronological order. In one implementation, the feed tracked update ispushed to the feed of a user, e.g., by a routine that determines thefollowers for the record from a list associated with the record. Inanother implementation, the feed tracked update is pulled to a feed,e.g., by a user device. This pulling may occur when a user requests thefeed, as occurs in block 370. Thus, these actions may occur in adifferent order. The creation of the feed for a pull may be a dynamiccreation that identifies records being followed by the requesting user,generates the display version of relevant feed tracked updates fromstored information (e.g., event and field change), and adds the feedtracked updates into the feed. A feed of feed tracked updates of recordsand other objects that a user is following is also generally referred toherein as a news feed, which can be a subset of a larger informationfeed in which other types of information updates appear, such as posts.

In yet another implementation, the feed tracked update could be sent asan e-mail to the follower, instead of in a feed. In one implementation,e-mail alerts for events can enable people to be e-mailed when certainevents occur. In another implementation, e-mails can be sent when thereare posts on a user profile and posts on entities to which the usersubscribes. In one implementation, a user can turn on/off email alertsfor all or some events. In an implementation, a user can specify whatkind of feed tracked updates to receive about a record that the user isfollowing. For example, a user can choose to only receive feed trackedupdates about certain fields of a record that the user is following, andpotentially about what kind of update was performed (e.g., a new valueinput into a specified field, or the creation of a new field).

In block 370, a follower can access his/her news feed to see the feedtracked update. In one implementation, the user has just one news feedfor all of the records that the user is following. In one aspect, a usercan access his/her own feed by selecting a particular tab or otherobject on a page of an interface to the database system. Once selectedthe feed can be provided as a list, e.g., with an identifier (e.g., atime) or including some or all of the text of the feed tracked update.In another implementation, the user can specify how the feed trackedupdates are to be displayed and/or sent to the user. For example, a usercan specify a font for the text, a location of where the feed can beselected and displayed, amount of text to be displayed, and other textor symbols to be displayed (e.g., importance flags).

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of an example of components of a databasesystem configuration 400 performing a method for tracking an update to arecord according to some implementations. Database system configuration400 can perform implementations of method 300, as well asimplementations of other methods described herein.

A first user 405 sends a request 1 to update record 425 in databasesystem 416.

Although an update request is described, other events that are beingtracked are equally applicable. In various implementations, the request1 can be sent via a user interface (e.g., 30 of FIG. 1B) or anapplication program interface (e.g., API 32). An I/O port 420 canaccommodate the signals of request 1 via any input interface, and sendthe signals to one or more processors 417. The processor 417 can analyzethe request and determine operations to be performed. Herein, anyreference to a processor 417 can refer to a specific processor or anyset of processors in database system 416, which can be collectivelyreferred to as processor 417.

Processor 417 can determine an identifier for record 425, and sendcommands with the new data 2 of the request to record database 412 toupdate record 425. In one implementation, record database 412 is wheretenant storage space 112 of FIG. 1B is located. The request 1 and newdata commands 2 can be encapsulated in a single write transaction sentto record database 412. In one implementation, multiple changes torecords in the database can be made in a single write transaction.

Processor 417 can also analyze request 1 to determine whether a feedtracked update is to be created, which at this point may includedetermining whether the event (e.g., a change to a particular field) isto be tracked. This determination can be based on an interaction (i.e.,an exchange of data) with record database 412 and/or other databases, orbased on information stored locally (e.g., in cache or RAM) at processor417. In one implementation, a list of record types that are beingtracked can be stored. The list may be different for each tenant, e.g.,as each tenant may configure the database system to its ownspecifications. Thus, if the record 425 is of a type not being tracked,then the determination of whether to create a feed tracked update canstop there.

The same list or a second list (which can be stored in a same locationor a different location) can also include the fields and/or events thatare tracked for the record types in the first list. This list can besearched to determine if the event is being tracked. A list may alsocontain information having the granularity of listing specific recordsthat are to be tracked (e.g., if a tenant can specify the particularrecords to be tracked, as opposed to just type).

As an example, processor 417 may obtain an identifier associated withrecord 425 (e.g., obtained from request 1 or database 412), potentiallyalong with a tenant identifier, and cross-reference the identifier witha list of records for which feed tracked updates are to be created.Specifically, the record identifier can be used to determine the recordtype and a list of tracked types can be searched for a match. Thespecific record may also be checked if such individual record trackingwas enabled. The name of the field to be changed can also be used tosearch a list of tracking-enabled fields. Other criteria besides fieldand events can be used to determine whether a feed tracked update iscreated, e.g., type of change in the field. If a feed tracked update isto be generated, processor 417 can then generate the feed trackedupdate.

In some implementations, a feed tracked update is created dynamicallywhen a feed (e.g., the entity feed of record 425) is requested. Thus, inone implementation, a feed tracked update can be created when a userrequests the entity feed for record 425. In this implementation, thefeed tracked update may be created (e.g., assembled), includingre-created, each time the entity feed is to be displayed to any user. Inone implementation, one or more event history tables can keep track ofprevious events so that the feed tracked update can be re-created.

In another implementation, a feed tracked update can be created at thetime the event occurs, and the feed tracked update can be added to alist of feed items. The list of feed items may be specific to record425, or may be an aggregate of feed items including feed items for manyrecords. Such an aggregate list can include a record identifier so thatthe feed items for the entity feed of record 425 can be easilyretrieved. For example, after the feed tracked update has beengenerated, processor 417 can add the new feed tracked update 3 to a feedof record 425. As mentioned above, in one implementation, the feed canbe stored in a field (e.g., as a child object) of record 425. In anotherimplementation, the feed can be stored in another location or in anotherdatabase, but with a link (e.g., a connecting identifier) to record 425.The feed can be organized in various ways, e.g., as a linked list, anarray, or other data structure.

A second user 430 can access the new feed tracked update 3 in variousways.

In one implementation, second user 430 can send a request 4 for therecord feed. For example, second user 430 can access a home page (detailpage) of the record 425 (e.g., with a query or by browsing), and thefeed can be obtained through a tab, button, or other activation objecton the page. The feed can be displayed on the screen or downloaded.

In another implementation, processor 417 can add the new feed trackedupdate 5 to a feed (e.g., a news feed) of a user that is followingrecord 425. In one implementation, processor 417 can determine each ofthe followers of record 425 by accessing a list of the users that havebeen registered as followers. This determination can be done for eachnew event (e.g., update 1). In another implementation, processor 417 canpoll (e.g., with a query) the records that second user 430 is followingto determine when new feed tracked updates (or other feed items) areavailable. Processor 417 can use a follower profile 435 of second user430 that can contain a list of the records that the second user 430 isfollowing. Such a list can be contained in other parts of the databaseas well. Second user 430 can then send a request 6 to his/her profile435 to obtain a feed, which contains the new feed tracked update. Theuser's profile 435 can be stored in a profile database 414, which can bethe same or different than database 412.

In some implementations, a user can define a news feed to include newfeed tracked updates from various records, which may be limited to amaximum number. In one implementation, each user has one news feed. Inanother implementation, the follower profile 435 can include thespecifications of each of the records to be followed (with the criteriafor what feed tracked updates are to be provided and how they aredisplayed), as well as the feed.

Some implementations can provide various types of record (entity) feeds.Entity Feeds can exist for record types like account, opportunity, case,and contact. An entity feed can tell a user about the actions thatpeople have taken on that particular record or on one its relatedrecords. The entity feed can include who made the action, which fieldwas changed, and the old and new values. In one implementation, entityfeeds can exist on all supported records as a list that is linked to thespecific record. For example, a feed could be stored in a field thatallows lists (e.g., linked lists) or as a child object.

IV. Tracking Actions of a User

In addition to knowing about events associated with a particular record,it can be helpful for a user to know what a particular user is doing. Inparticular, it might be nice to know what the user is doing without theuser having to generate the feed tracked update (e.g., a user submittinga synopsis of what the user has done). Accordingly, implementations canautomatically track actions of a user that trigger events, and feedtracked updates can be generated for certain events.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 500 for trackingactions of a user of a database system, performed in accordance withsome implementations. Method 500 may be performed in addition to method300. The operations of method 300, including order of blocks, can beperformed in conjunction with method 500 and other methods describedherein. Thus, a feed can be composed of changes to a record and actionsof users.

In block 510, a database system (e.g., 16 of FIGS. 1A and 1B) identifiesan action of a first user. In one implementation, the action triggers anevent, and the event is identified. For example, the action of a userrequesting an update to a record can be identified, where the event isreceiving a request or is the resulting update of a record. The actionmay thus be defined by the resulting event. In another implementation,only certain types of actions (events) are identified. Which actions areidentified can be set as a default or can be configurable by a tenant,or even configurable at a user level. In this way, processing effort canbe reduced since only some actions are identified.

In block 520, it is determined whether the event qualifies for a feedtracked update. In one implementation, a predefined list of events(e.g., as mentioned herein) can be created so that only certain actionsare identified. In one implementation, an administrator (or other user)of a tenant can specify the type of actions (events) for which a feedtracked update is to be generated. This block may also be performed formethod 300.

In block 530, a feed tracked update is generated about the action. In anexample where the action is an update of a record, the feed trackedupdate can be similar or the same as the feed tracked update created forthe record. The description can be altered though to focus on the useras opposed to the record. For example, “John D. has closed a newopportunity for account XYZ” as opposed to “an opportunity has beenclosed for account XYZ.”

In block 540, the feed tracked update is added to a profile feed of thefirst user when, e.g., the user clicks on a tab to open a page in abrowser program displaying the feed. In one implementation, a feed for aparticular user can be accessed on a page of the user's profile, in asimilar manner as a record feed can be accessed on a detail page of therecord. In another implementation, the first user may not have a profilefeed and the feed tracked update may just be stored temporarily beforeproceeding. A profile feed of a user can be stored associated with theuser's profile. This profile feed can be added to a news feed of anotheruser.

In block 550, followers of the first user are identified. In oneimplementation, a user can specify which type of actions other users canfollow. Similarly, in one implementation, a follower can select whatactions by a user the follower wants to follow. In an implementationwhere different followers follow different types of actions, which usersare followers of that user and the particular action can be identified,e.g., using various lists that track what actions and criteria are beingfollowed by a particular user. In various implementations, the followersof the first user can be identified in a similar manner as followers ofa record, as described above for block 350.

In block 560, the feed tracked update is added to a news feed of eachfollower of the first user when, e.g., the follower clicks on a tab toopen a page displaying the news feed. The feed tracked update can beadded in a similar manner as the feed items for a record feed. The newsfeed can contain feed tracked updates both about users and records. Inanother implementation, a user can specify what kind of feed trackedupdates to receive about a user that the user is following. For example,a user could specify feed tracked updates with particular keywords, ofcertain types of records, of records owned or created by certain users,particular fields, and other criteria as mentioned herein.

In block 570, a follower accesses the news feed and sees the feedtracked update. In one implementation, the user has just one news feedfor all of the records that the user is following. In anotherimplementation, a user can access his/her own feed (i.e. feed abouthis/her own actions) by selecting a particular tab or other object on apage of an interface to the database system. Thus, a feed can includefeed tracked updates about what other users are doing in the databasesystem. When a user becomes aware of a relevant action of another user,the user can contact the co-worker, thereby fostering teamwork.

V. Generation of a Feed Tracked Update

As described above, some implementations can generate text describingevents (e.g., updates) that have occurred for a record and actions by auser that trigger an event. A database system can be configured togenerate the feed tracked updates for various events in various ways.

A. Which Events to generate a feed tracked update

In a database system, there are various events that can be detected.However, the operator of the database system and/or a tenant may notwant to detect every possible event as this could be costly with regardsto performance. Accordingly, the operator and/or the tenant canconfigure the database system to only detect certain events. Forexample, an update of a record may be an event that is to be detected.

Out of the events that are detected, a tenant (including a specific userof the tenant) may not want a feed tracked update about each detectedevent. For example, all updates to a record may be identified at a firstlevel. Then, based on specifications of an administrator and/or aspecific user of a tenant, another level of inquiry can be made as towhether a feed tracked update is to be generated about the detectedevent. For example, the events that qualify for a feed tracked updatecan be restricted to changes for only certain fields of the record, andcan differ depending on which user is receiving the feed. In oneimplementation, a database system can track whether an event qualifiesfor a feed tracked update for any user, and once the feed tracked updateis generated, it can be determined who is to receive the feed trackedupdate.

Supported events (events for which a feed tracked update is generated)can include actions for standard fields, custom fields, and standardrelated lists. Regarding standard fields, for the entity feed and theprofile feed, a standard field update can trigger a feed tracked updateto be presented in that feed. In one implementation, which standardfield can create a feed tracked update can be set by an administrator tobe the same for every user. In another implementation, a user can setwhich standard fields create a feed tracked update for that user's newsfeed. Custom fields can be treated the same or differently than standardfields.

The generation of a feed item can also depend on a relationship of anobject to other objects (e.g., parent-child relationships). For example,if a child object is updated, a feed tracked update may be written to afeed of a parent of the child object. The level of relationship can beconfigured, e.g., only 1 level of separation (i.e. nograndparent-grandchild relationship). Also, in one implementation, afeed tracked update is generated only for objects above the objectsbeing updated, i.e., a feed tracked update is not written for a childwhen the parent is updated.

In some implementations, for related lists of a record, a feed trackedupdate is written to its parent record (1 level only) when the relatedlist item is added, and not when the list item is changed or deleted.For example: user A added a new opportunity XYZ for account ABC. In thismanner, entity feeds can be controlled so as not to be cluttered withfeed tracked updates about changes to their related items. Any changesto the related list item can be tracked on their own entity feed, ifthat related list item has a feed on it. In this implementation, if auser wants to see a feed of the related list item then the user cansubscribe to it. Such a subscription might be when a user cares about aspecific opportunity related to a specific account. A user can alsobrowse to that object's entity feed. Other implementations can create afeed tracked update when a related entity is changed or deleted.

In one implementation, an administrator (of the system or of a specifictenant) can define which events of which related objects are to havefeed tracked updates written about them in a parent record. In anotherimplementation, a user can define which related object events to show.In one implementation, there are two types of related lists of relatedobjects: first class lookup and second class lookup. Each of the recordsin the related lists can have a different rule for whether a feedtracked update is generated for a parent record. Each of these relatedlists can be composed as custom related lists. In variousimplementations, a custom related list can be composed of customobjects; the lists can contain a variety of records or items (e.g., notrestricted to a particular type of record or item), and can be displayedin a customized manner.

In one implementation, a first class lookup contains records of a childrecord that can exist by itself. For example, the contacts on an accountexist as a separate record and also as a child record of the account. Inanother implementation, a record in a first class lookup can have itsown feed, which can be displayed on its detail page.

In one implementation, a second class lookup can have line itemsexisting only in the context of their parent record (e.g., activities onan opportunity, contact roles on opportunity/contact). In oneimplementation, the line items are not objects themselves, and thusthere is no detail page, and no place to put a feed. In anotherimplementation, a change in a second class lookup can be reported on thefeed of the parent.

Some implementations can also create feed tracked updates for dependentfield changes. A dependent field change is a field that changes valuewhen another field changes, and thus the field has a value that isdependent on the value of the other field. For example, a dependentfield might be a sum (or other formula) that totals values in otherfields, and thus the dependent field would change when one of the fieldsbeing summed changes. Accordingly, in one implementation, a change inone field could create feed tracked updates for multiple fields. Inother implementations, feed tracked updates are not created fordependent fields.

B. How the Feed Tracked Update is Generated

After it is determined that a feed tracked update is going to begenerated, some implementations can also determine how the feed trackedupdate is generated. In one implementation, different methods can beused for different events, e.g., in a similar fashion as for theconfigurability of which events feed tracked updates are generated. Afeed tracked update can also include a description of multiple events(e.g., john changed the account status and amount).

In one implementation, the feed tracked update is a grammaticalsentence, thereby being easily understandable by a person. In anotherimplementation, the feed tracked update provides detailed informationabout the update. In various examples, an old value and new value for afield may be included in the feed tracked update, an action for theupdate may be provided (e.g., submitted for approval), and the names ofparticular users that are responsible for replying or acting on the feedtracked update may be also provided. The feed tracked update can alsohave a level of importance based on settings chosen by theadministrator, a particular user requesting an update, or by a followinguser who is to receive the feed tracked update, which fields is updated,a percentage of the change in a field, the type of event, or anycombination of these factors.

The system may have a set of heuristics for creating a feed trackedupdate from the event (e.g., a request to update). For example, thesubject may be the user, the record, or a field being added or changed.The verb can be based on the action requested by the user, which can beselected from a list of verbs (which may be provided as defaults orinput by an administrator of a tenant). In one implementation, feedtracked updates can be generic containers with formatting restrictions,

As an example of a feed tracked update for a creation of a new record,“Mark Abramowitz created a new Opportunity for IBM-20,000 laptops withAmount as $3.5M and Sam Palmisano as Decision Maker.” This event can beposted to the profile feed for Mark Abramowitz and the entity feed forrecord of Opportunity for IBM-20,000 laptops. The pattern can be givenby (AgentFullName) created a new (ObjectName)(RecordName) with[(FieldName) as (FieldValue)[,/and]]*[[added/changed/removed](RelatedListRecordName)[as/to/as](RelatedListRecordValue)[,/and]]*. Similar patterns can be formed for a changed field (standardor custom) and an added child record to a related list.

VI. Tracking Commentary from or about a User

Some implementations can also have a user submit text, instead of thedatabase system generating a feed tracked update. As the text issubmitted as part or all of a message by a user, the text can be aboutany topic. Thus, more information than just actions of a user and eventsof a record can be conveyed. In one implementation, the messages can beused to ask a question about a particular record, and users followingthe record can provide comments and responses.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 600 for creating anews feed from messages created by a user about a record or anotheruser, performed in accordance with some implementations. In oneimplementation, method 600 can be combined with methods 300 and 500. Inone aspect, a message can be associated with the first user when thefirst user creates the message (e.g., a post or comment about a recordor another user). In another aspect, a message can be associated withthe first user when the message is about the first user (e.g., posted byanother user on the first user's profile feed).

In block 610, the database system receives a message (e.g., a post orstatus update) associated with a first user. The message (e.g., a postor status update) can contain text and/or multimedia content submittedby another user or by the first user. In one implementation, a post isfor a section of the first user's profile page where any user can add apost, and where multiple posts can exist. Thus, a post can appear on thefirst user's profile page and can be viewed when the first user'sprofile is visited. For a message about a record, the post can appear ona detail page of a record. Note the message can appear in other feeds aswell. In another implementation, a status update about the first usercan only be added by the first user. In one implementation, a user canonly have one status message.

In block 620, the message is added to a table, as described in greaterdetail below. When the feed is opened, a query filters one or moretables to identify the first user, identify other persons that the useris following, and retrieve the message. Messages and record updates arepresented in a combined list as the feed. In this way, in oneimplementation, the message can be added to a profile feed of the firstuser, which is associated (e.g., as a related list) with the firstuser's profile. In one implementation, the posts are listedindefinitely. In another implementation, only the most recent posts(e.g., last 50) are kept in the profile feed. Such implementations canalso be employed with feed tracked updates. In yet anotherimplementation, the message can be added to a profile of the user addingthe message.

In block 630, the database system identifies followers of the firstuser. In one implementation, the database system can identify thefollowers as described above for method 500. In various implementations,a follower can select to follow a feed about the actions of the firstuser, messages about the first user, or both (potentially in a samefeed).

In block 640, the message is added to a news feed of each follower. Inone implementation, the message is only added to a news feed of aparticular follower if the message matches some criteria, e.g., themessage includes a particular keyword or other criteria. In anotherimplementation, a message can be deleted by the user who created themessage. In one implementation, once deleted by the author, the messageis deleted from all feeds to which the message had been added.

In block 650, the follower accesses a news feed and sees the message.For example, the follower can access a news feed on the follower's ownprofile page. As another example, the follower can have a news feed sentto his/her own desktop without having to first go to a home page.

In block 660, the database system receives a comment about the message.The database system can add the comment to a feed of the same firstuser, much as the original message was added. In one implementation, thecomment can also be added to a feed of a second user who added thecomment. In one implementation, users can also reply to the comment. Inanother implementation, users can add comments to a feed tracked update,and further comments can be associated with the feed tracked update. Inyet another implementation, making a comment or message is not an actionto which a feed tracked update is created. Thus, the message may be theonly feed item created from such an action.

In one implementation, if a feed tracked update or post is deleted, itscorresponding comments are deleted as well. In another implementation,new comments on a feed tracked update or post do not update the feedtracked update timestamp. Also, the feed tracked update or post cancontinue to be shown in a feed (profile feed, record feed, or news feed)if it has had a comment within a specified timeframe (e.g., within thelast week). Otherwise, the feed tracked update or post can be removed inan implementation.

In some implementations, all or most feed tracked updates can becommented on. In other implementations, feed tracked updates for certainrecords (e.g., cases or ideas) are not commentable. In variousimplementations, comments can be made for any one or more records ofopportunities, accounts, contacts, leads, and custom objects.

In block 670, the comment is added to a news feed of each follower. Inone implementation, a user can make the comment within the user's newsfeed. Such a comment can propagate to the appropriate profile feed orrecord feed, and then to the news feeds of the following users. Thus,feeds can include what people are saying, as well as what they aredoing. In one aspect, feeds are a way to stay up-to-date (e.g., onusers, opportunities, etc.) as well as an opportunity to reach out toco-workers/partners and engage them around common goals.

In some implementations, users can rate feed tracked updates or messages(including comments). A user can choose to prioritize a display of afeed so that higher rated feed items show up higher on a display. Forexample, in an implementation where comments are answers to a specificquestion, users can rate the different status posts so that a bestanswer can be identified. As another example, users are able to quicklyidentify feed items that are most important as those feed items can bedisplayed at a top of a list. The order of the feed items can be basedon an importance level (which can be determined by the database systemusing various factors, some of which are mentioned herein) and based ona rating from users. In one implementation, the rating is on a scalethat includes at least 3 values. In another implementation, the ratingis based on a binary scale.

Besides a profile for a user, a group can also be created. In variousimplementations, the group can be created based on certain criteria thatare common to the users, can be created by inviting users, or can becreated by receiving requests to join from a user. In oneimplementation, a group feed can be created, with messages being addedto the group feed when someone adds a message to the group as a whole.For example, a group page may have a section for posts. In anotherimplementation, a message can be added to a group feed when a message isadded about any one of the members. In yet another implementation, agroup feed can include feed tracked updates about actions of the groupas a whole (e.g., when an administrator changes data in a group profileor a record owned by the group), or about actions of an individualmember.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a group feed on a group page according tosome implementations. As shown, a feed item 710 shows that a user hasposted a document to the group object. The text “Bill Bauer has postedthe document Competitive Insights” can be generated by the databasesystem in a similar manner as feed tracked updates about a record beingchanged. A feed item 720 shows a post to the group, along with comments730 from Ella Johnson, James Saxon, Mary Moore and Bill Bauer.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a record feed containing a feed trackedupdate, post, and comments according to some implementations. Feed item810 shows a feed tracked update based on the event of submitting adiscount for approval. Other feed items show posts, e.g., from BillBauer, that are made to the record and comments, e.g., from Erica Lawand Jake Rapp, that are made on the posts.

VII. Infrastructure for a Feed

A. Tables Used to Create a Feed

FIG. 9A shows an example of a plurality of feed tracked update tablesthat may be used in tracking events and creating feeds according to someimplementations. The tables of FIG. 9A may have entries added, orpotentially removed, as part of tracking events in the database fromwhich feed items are creates or that correspond to feed items. In oneimplementation, each tenant has its own set of tables that are createdbased on criteria provided by the tenant.

An event history table 910 can provide a feed tracked update of eventsfrom which feed items are created. In one aspect, the events are forobjects that are being tracked. Thus, table 910 can store and changefeed tracked updates for feeds, and the changes can be persisted. Invarious implementations, event history table 910 can have columns ofevent ID 911, object ID 912 (also called parent ID), and created by ID913. The event ID 911 can uniquely identify a particular event and canstart at 1 (or other number or value).

Each new event can be added chronologically with a new event ID, whichmay be incremented in order. An object ID 912 can be used to track whichrecord or user's profile is being changed. For example, the object IDcan correspond to the record whose field is being changed or the userwhose feed is receiving a post. The created by ID 913 can track the userwho is performing the action that results in the event, e.g., the userthat is changing the field or that is posting a message to the profileof another user.

In some other implementations, event history table 910 can have one ormore of the following variables with certain attributes: ORGANIZATION_IDbeing CHAR(15 BYTE), FEEDS_ENTITY_HIFEED TRACKED UPDATE_ID being CHAR(15BYTE), PARENT_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE), CREATED_BY being CHAR(15 BYTE),CREATED_DATE being a variable of type DATE, DIVISION being a NUMBER,KEY_PREFIX being CHAR(3 BYTE), and DELETED being CHAR(1 BYTE). Theparent ID can provide an ID of a parent object in case the change ispromulgated to the parent. The key prefix can provide a key that isunique to a group of records, e.g., custom records (objects). Thedeleted variable can indicate that the feed items for the event aredeleted, and thus the feed items are not generated. In oneimplementation, the variables for each event entry or any entry in anyof the tables may not be nullable. In another implementation, allentries in the event history table 910 are used to create feed items foronly one object, as specified by the object ID 912. For example, onefeed tracked update cannot communicate updates on two records, such asupdates of an account field and an opportunity field.

In one implementation, a name of an event can also be stored in table910. In one implementation, a tenant can specify events that they wanttracked. In an implementation, event history table 910 can include thename of the field that changed (e.g., old and new values). In anotherimplementation, the name of the field, and the values, are stored in aseparate table. Other information about an event (e.g., text of comment,feed tracked update, post or status update) can be stored in eventhistory table 910, or in other tables, as is now described.

A field change table 920 can provide a feed tracked update of thechanges to the fields. The columns of table 920 can include an event ID921 (which correlates to the event ID 911), an old value 922 for thefield, and the new value 923 for the field. In one implementation, if anevent changes more than one field value, then there can be an entry foreach field changed. As shown, event ID 921 has two entries for eventE37.

In some other implementations, field change table 920 can have one ormore of the following variables with certain attributes: ORGANIZATION_IDbeing CHAR(15 BYTE), FEEDS_ENTITY_HIFEED TRACKED UPDATE_FIELDS_ID beingCHAR(15 BYTE) and identifying each entry, FEEDS_ENTITY_HIFEED TRACKEDUPDATE_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE), FIELD_KEY being VARCHAR2(120 BYTE),DATA_TYPE being CHAR(1 BYTE), OLDVAL_STRING VARCHAR2 being (765 BYTE),NEWVAL_STRING being VARCHAR2(765 BYTE), OLDVAL_FIRST_NAME beingVARCHAR2(765 BYTE), NEWVAL_FIRST_NAME being VARCHAR2(765 BYTE),OLDVAL_LAST_NAME being VARCHAR2(765 BYTE), NEWVAL_LAST_NAME beingVARCHAR2(765 BYTE), OLDVAL_NUMBER being NUMBER, NEWVAL_NUMBER beingNUMBER, OLDVAL_DATE being DATE, NEWVAL_DATE being DATE, and DELETEDbeing CHAR(1 BYTE). In one implementation, one or more of the variablesfor each entry in any of the tables may be nullable.

In one implementation, the data type variable (and/or other variables)is a non-API-insertable field. In another implementation, variablevalues can be derived from the record whose field is being changed.Certain values can be transferred into typed columns old/new valuestring, old/new value number or old/new value date depending upon thederived values. In another implementation, there can exist a data typefor capturing add/deletes for child objects. The child ID can be trackedin the foreign-key column of the record. In yet another implementation,if the field name is pointing to a field in the parent entity, a fieldlevel security (FLS) can be used when a user attempts to a view arelevant feed item. Herein, security levels for objects and fields arealso called access checks and determinations of authorization. In oneaspect, the access can be for create, read, write, update, or delete ofobjects.

In one implementation, the field name (or key) can be either a fieldname of the entity or one of the values in a separate list. For example,changes that do not involve the update of an existing field (e.g., aclose or open) can have a field name specified in an enumerated list.This enumerated list can store “special” field name sentinel values fornon-update actions that a tenant wants to track. In one aspect, the APIjust surfaces these values and the caller has to check the enumeratedvalues to see if it is a special field name.

A comment table 930 can provide a feed tracked update of the commentsmade regarding an event, e.g., a comment on a post or a change of afield value. The columns of table 930 can include an event ID 921 (whichcorrelates to the event ID 911), the comment column 932 that stores thetext of the comment, and the time/date 933 of the comment. In oneimplementation, there can be multiple comments for each event. As shown,event ID 921 has two entries for event E37.

In some other implementations, comment table 930 can have one or more ofthe following variables with certain attributes: ORGANIZATION_ID beingCHAR(15 BYTE), FEEDS_COMMENTS_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE) and uniquelyidentifying each comment, PARENT_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE), CREATED_BYbeing CHAR(15 BYTE), CREATED_DATE being DATE, COMMENTS beingVARCHAR2(420 BYTE), and DELETED being CHAR(1 BYTE).

A user subscription table 940 can provide a list of the objects beingfollowed (subscribed to) by a user. In one implementation, each entryhas a user ID 941 of the user doing the following and one object ID 942corresponding to the object being followed. In one implementation, theobject being followed can be a record or a user. As shown, the user withID U819 is following object IDs O615 and O489. If user U819 is followingother objects, then additional entries may exist for user U819. Also asshown, user U719 is also following object O615. The user subscriptiontable 940 can be updated when a user adds or deletes an object that isbeing followed.

In some other implementations, user subscription table 940 can becomposed of two tables (one for records being followed and one for usersbeing followed). One table can have one or more of the followingvariables with certain attributes: ORGANIZATION_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE),ENTITY_SUBSCRIPTION_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE), PARENT_ID being CHAR(15BYTE), CREATED_BY being CHAR(15 BYTE), CREATED_DATE being DATE, andDELETED being CHAR(1 BYTE). Another table can have one or more of thefollowing variables with certain attributes: ORGANIZATION_ID beingCHAR(15 BYTE), USER_SUBSCRIPTIONS_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE), USER_ID beingCHAR(15 BYTE), CREATED_BY being CHAR(15 BYTE), and CREATED_DATE beingDATE.

In one implementation, regarding a profile feed and a news feed, theseare read-only views on the event history table 910 specialized for thesefeed types. Conceptually the news feed can be a semi join between theuser subscription table 940 and the event history table 910 on theobject IDs 912 and 942 for the user. In one aspect, these entities canhave polymorphic parents and can be subject to a number of restrictionsdetailed herein, e.g., to limit the cost of sharing checks.

In one implementation, entity feeds are modeled in the API as a feedassociate entity (e.g., AccountFeed, CaseFeed, etc). A feed associateentity includes information composed of events (e.g., event IDs) foronly one particular record type. Such a list can limit the query (andsharing checks) to a specific record type. In one aspect, thisstructuring of the entity feeds can make the query run faster. Forexample, a request for a feed of a particular account can include therecord type of account. In one implementation, an account feed table canthen be searched, where the table has account record IDs andcorresponding event IDs or pointers to particular event entries in eventhistory table 910. Since the account feed table only contains some ofthe records (not all), the query can run faster.

In one implementation, there may be objects with no events listed in theevent history table 910, even though the record is being tracked. Inthis case, the database service can return a result indicating that nofeed items exist.

In another implementation, tables can also exist for audit tracking,e.g., to examine that operations of the system (e.g., access checks) areperforming accurately. In one implementation, audit change-event historytables can be persisted (e.g., in bulk) synchronously in the sametransaction as feed events are added to event history table 910. Inanother implementation, entries to the two sets of table can bepersisted in asynchronous manner (e.g., by forking a bulk update into aseparate java thread). In one aspect, some updates to any of the tablescan get lost if the instance of the table goes down while the update hasnot yet finished. This asynchronous manner can limit an impactperformance on save operations. In some implementations, a field“persistence type” (tri state: AUDIT, FEEDS or BOTH) can be added tocapture user preferences, as opposed to being hard coded.

B. Feed Item

A feed item can represent an individual field change of a record,creation and deletion of a record, or other events being tracked for arecord or a user. In one implementation, all of the feed items in asingle transaction (event) can be grouped together and have the sameevent ID. A single transaction relates to the operations that can beperformed in a single communication with the database. In anotherimplementation where a feed is an object of the database, a feed itemcan be a child of a profile feed, news feed, or entity feed. If a feeditem is added to multiple feeds, the feed item can be replicated as achild of each feed to which the feed item is added.

In one implementation, a feed item is visible only when its parent feedis visible, which can be the same as needing read access on the feed'sparent (which can be by the type of record or by a specific record). Thefeed item's field may be only visible when allowed under field-levelsecurity (FLS). Unfortunately, this can mean that the parent feed may bevisible, but the child may not be because of FLS. Such access rules aredescribed in more detail below. In one implementation, a feed item canbe read-only. In this implementation, after being created, the feed itemcannot be changed.

In multi-currency organizations, a feed item can have an extra currencycode field. This field can give the currency code for the currency valuein this field. In one aspect, the value is undefined when the data typeis anything other than currency.

C. Feed Comment

In some implementations, a comment exists as an item that depends fromfeed tracked updates, posts, status updates, and other items that areindependent of each other. Thus, a feed comment object can exist as achild object of a feed item object. For example, comment table 930 canbe considered a child table of event history table 910. In oneimplementation, a feed comment can be a child of a profile feed, newsfeed, or entity feed that is separate from other feed items.

In various implementations, a feed comment can have various permissionsfor the following actions. For read permission, a feed comment can bevisible if the parent feed is visible. For create permission, if a userhas access to the feed (which can be tracked by the ID of the parentfeed), the user can add a comment. For delete, only a user with modifyall data permission or a user who added the comment can delete thecomment. Also delete permission can involve access on the parent feed.An update of a comment can be restricted, and thus not be allowed.

In one implementation, regarding a query restriction, a feed commentcannot be queried directly, but can be queried only via the parent feed.An example is “select id, parentid, (select . . . from feedcomment) fromentityfeed”. In another implementation, a feed comment can be directlyqueries, e.g., by querying comment table 930. A query could include thetext of a comment or any other column of the table.

In another implementation, regarding soft delete behavior, a feedcomment table does not have a soft delete column. A soft delete allowsan undelete action. In one implementation, a record can have a softdelete. Thus, when the record is deleted, the feed (and its children)can be soft deleted. Therefore, in one aspect, a feed comment cannot beretrieved via the “query” verb (which would retrieve only the comment),but can be retrieved via “queryAll” verb though. An example isqueryAll(“select id, (select id, commentbody from feedcomments) fromaccountfeed where parentid=‘001x000xxx3MkADAA0’”); // where‘001x000xxx3MkADAA0’ has been soft deleted. When a hard delete (aphysical delete) happens, the comment can be hard deleted from thedatabase.

In one implementation, regarding an implicit delete, feeds with commentsare not deleted by a reaper (a routine that performs deletion). Inanother implementation, a user cannot delete a feed. In yet anotherimplementation, upon lead convert (e.g., to an opportunity or contact),the feed items of the lead can be hard deleted. This implementation canbe configured to perform such a deletion for any change in record type.In various implementations, only the comments are hard deleted upon alead convert, other convert, or when the object is deleted (as mentionedabove).

In one implementation, viewing a feed pulls up the most recent messagesor feed tracked updates (e.g., 25) and searches the most recent (e.g.,4) comments for each feed item. The comments can be identified via thecomment table 930. In one implementation, a user can request to see morecomments, e.g., by selecting a see more link.

In some implementations, user feeds and/or entity feeds have a lastcomment date field. In various implementations, the last comment datefield is stored as a field of a record or a user profile. For feeds withno comments, this can be the same as the created date. Whenever a newcomment is created, the associated feed's last comment date can beupdated with the created date of the comment. The last comment date isunchanged if a feed comment is deleted. A use case is to allow people toorder their queries to see the feeds, which have been most recentlycommented on.

D. Creating Custom Feeds by Customizing the Event History Table

In some implementations, a tenant (e.g., through an administrator) or aspecific user of a tenant can specify the types of events for which feeditems are created. A user can add more events or remove events from alist of events that get added to the event history table 910. In oneimplementation, a trigger can be added as a piece of code, rule, or itemon a list for adding a custom event to the event history table 910.These custom events can provide customers the ability to create theirown custom feeds and custom feed items to augment or replace implicitlygenerated feeds via event history table 910. Implicitly generated feeddata can be created when feed-tracking is enabled for certainentities/field-names. In one implementation, in order to overrideimplicit feeds, feed tracking can be turned off and then triggers can bedefined by the user to add events to the event history table 910. Inother implementations, users are not allowed to override the defaultlist of events that are added to table 910, and thus cannot define theirown triggers for having events tracked.

For example, upon lead convert or case close, a default action to betaken by the system may be to add multiple events to event history table910. If a customer (e.g., a tenant or a specific user) does not wanteach of these events to show up as feed items, the customer can turn offtracking for the entities and generate custom feeds by definingcustomized triggers (e.g., by using an API) upon the events. As anotherexample, although data is not changed, a customer may still want totrack an action on a record (e.g., status changes if not already beingtracked, views by certain people, retrieval of data, etc.).

In one implementation, if a user does not want a feed item to begenerated upon every change on a given field, but only if the changeexceeds a certain threshold or range, then such custom feeds can beconditionally generated with the customized triggers. In oneimplementation, the default tracking for the record or user may beturned off for this customization so that the events are onlyconditionally tracked. In another implementation, a trigger can bedefined that deletes events that are not desired, so that defaulttracking can still be turned on for a particular object type. Suchconditional tracking can be used for other events as well.

In some implementations, defining triggers to track certain events canbe done as follows. A user can define an object type to track. Thisobject type can be added to a list of objects that can be tracked for aparticular tenant. The tenant can remove object types from this list aswell. Custom objects and standard objects can be on the list, which may,for example, be stored in cache or RAM of a server or in the database.Generally only one such list exists for a tenant, and users do not haveindividual lists for themselves, although in some implementations, theymay particularly when the number of users in a tenant is small.

In one implementation, a tenant can select which records of an objecttype are to be tracked. In another implementation, once an object typeis added to the tracking list of object types, then all records of thattype are tracked. The tenant can then specify the particulars of how thetracking is to be performed. For example, the tenant can specifytriggers as described above, fields to be tracked, or any of thecustomizations mentioned herein.

In some implementations, when a feed is defined as an object in thedatabase (e.g., as a child object of entity records that can betracked), a particular instance of the feed object (e.g., for aparticular record) can be create-able and delete-able. In oneimplementation, if a user has access to a record then the user cancustomize the feed for the record. In one implementation, a record maybe locked to prevent customization of its feed.

One method of creating a custom feed for users of a database systemaccording to implementations is now described. Any of the followingblocks can be performed wholly or partially with the database system,and in particular by one or more processor of the database system.

In block A, one or more criteria specifying which events are to betracked for possible inclusion into a feed to be displayed are receivedfrom a tenant. In block B, data indicative of an event is received. Inblock C, the event is analyzed to determine if the criteria aresatisfied. In block D, if the criteria are satisfied, at least a portionof the data is added to a table (e.g., one or more of the tables in FIG.9A) that tracks events for inclusion into at least one feed for a userof the tenant. The feed in which feed items of an event may ultimatelybe displayed can be a news feed, record feed, or a profile feed.

E. Creating Custom Feeds with Filtering

After feed items have been generated, they can be filtered so that onlycertain feed items are displayed, which may be tailored to a specifictenant and/or user. In one implementation, a user can specify changes toa field that meet certain criteria for the feed item to show up in afeed displayed to the user, e.g., a news feed or even an entity feeddisplayed directly to the user. In one implementation, the criteria canbe combined with other factors (e.g., number of feed items in the feed)to determine which feed items to display. For instance, if a smallnumber of feed items exist (e.g., below a threshold), then all of thefeed items may be displayed.

In one implementation, a user can specify the criteria via a query onthe feed items in his/her new feed, and thus a feed may only returnobjects of a certain type, certain types of events, feed tracked updatesabout certain fields, and other criteria mentioned herein. Messages canalso be filtered according to some criteria, which may be specified in aquery. Such an added query can be added onto a standard query that isused to create the news feed for a user. A first user could specify theusers and records that the first user is following in this manner, aswell as identify the specific feed items that the first user wants tofollow. The query could be created through a graphical interface oradded by a user directly in a query language. Other criteria couldinclude receiving only posts directed to a particular user or record, asopposed to other feed items.

In one implementation, the filters can be run by defining code triggers,which run when an event, specific or otherwise, occurs. The triggercould then run to perform the filtering at the time the event occurs orwhen a user (who has certain defined triggers, that is configured for aparticular user) requests a display of the feed. A trigger could searchfor certain terms (e.g., vulgar language) and then remove such terms ornot create the feed item. A trigger can also be used to send the feeditem to a particular person (e.g., an administrator) who does notnormally receive the feed item were it not for the feed item containingthe flagged terms.

F. Access Checks

In one implementation, a user can access a feed of a record if the usercan access the record. The security rules for determining whether a userhas access to a record can be performed in a variety of ways, some ofwhich are described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 8,095,531, titledMETHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING ACCESS TO CUSTOM OBJECTS IN ADATABASE, by Weissman et al., issued on Jan. 10, 2012, and herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety and for all purposes. Forexample, a security level table can specify whether a user can see aparticular type of record and/or particular records. In oneimplementation, a hierarchy of positions within a tenant is used. Forexample, a manager can inherit the access levels of employees that themanager supervises. Field level security (FLS) can also be used todetermine whether a particular feed tracked update about an update to afield can be seen by the user. The field change table 920 can be used toidentify a field name or field ID, and then whether the user has readaccess to that field can be determined from an FLS table. For example,if a user could not see a field of a social security number, the feed ofthe user provided to the user would not include any feed items relatedto the social security number field.

In one implementation, a user can edit a feed of a record if the userhas access to the record, e.g., deleting or editing a feed item. Inanother implementation, a user (besides an administrator) cannot edit afeed item, except for performing an action from which a feed item can becreated. In one example, a user is first has to have access to aparticular record and field for a feed item to be created based on anaction of the user. In this case, an administrator can be considered tobe a user with MODIFY-ALL-DATA security level. In yet anotherimplementation, a user who created the record can edit the feed.

G. Posts

In one implementation, the text of posts are stored in a child table(post table 950), which can be cross-referenced with event history table910. Post table 950 can include event ID 951 (to cross-reference withevent ID 911), post text 952 to store the text of the post, andtime/date 953. An entry in post table 950 can be considered a feed postobject. Posts for a record can also be subject to access checks. In oneimplementation, if a user can view a record then all of the posts can beseen, i.e. there is not an additional level of security check as thereis for FLS. In another implementation, an additional security checkcould be done, e.g., by checking on whether certain keywords (orphrases) exist in the post. For instance, a post may not be not providedto specified users if a certain keyword exists, or only provided tospecified users if a keyword exists. In another implementation, a tablecan exist for status updates.

VIII. Subscribing to Users and Records to Follow

As described above, a user can follow users, groups, and records.Implementations can provide mechanisms for a user to manage which users,groups, and records that the user is currently following. In oneimplementation, a user can be limited to the number of users and records(collectively or separately) that the user can follow. For example, auser may be restricted to only following 10 users and 15 records, or asanother example, 25 total. Alternatively, the user may be permitted tofollow more or less users.

In one implementation, a user can go to a page of a record and thenselect to follow that object (e.g., with a button marked “follow” or“join”). In another implementation, a user can search for a record andhave the matching records show up in a list. The search can includecriteria of records that the user might want to follow. Such criteriacan include the owner, the creation date, last comment date, andnumerical values of particular fields (e.g., an opportunity with a valueof more than $10,000).

A follow button (or other activation object) can then reside next toeach record in the resulting list, and the follow button can be selectedto start following the record. Similarly, a user can go to a profilepage of a user and select to follow the user, or a search for users canprovide a list, where one or more users can be selected for followingfrom the list. The selections of subscribing and unsubscribing can addand delete rows in table 920.

In some implementations, a subscription center acts as a centralizedplace in a database application (e.g., application platform 18) tomanage which records a user subscribes to, and which field updates theuser wants to see in feed tracked updates. The subscription center canuse a subscription table to keep track of the subscriptions of varioususers. In one implementation, the subscription center shows a list ofall the items (users and records) a user is subscribed to. In anotherimplementation, a user can unsubscribe to subscribed objects from thesubscription center.

A. Automatic Subscription

In one implementation, an automatic subscription feature can ensure thata user is receiving certain feeds. In this manner, a user does not haveto actively select certain objects to follow. Also, a tenant can ensurethat a user is following objects that the user needs to be following.

In various implementations for automatically following users, a defaultfor small organizations can be to follow everyone. For bigorganizations, the default can be to follow a manager and peers. If auser is a manager, the default can be to follow the manager'ssupervisor, peers, and people that the manager supervises(subordinates). In other implementations for automatically followingrecords, records that the user owns may be automatically followed and/orrecords recently viewed (or changed) may be automatically followed.

In one example, a new record is created. The owner (not necessarily theuser who created the entity) is subscribed to the entity. If ownershipis changed, the new owner may automatically be subscribed to follow theentity. Also, after a lead convert, the user doing the lead convert maybe automatically subscribed to the new account, opportunity, or contactresulting from the lead convert. In one implementation, the autosubscription is controlled by user preference. That is a user or tenantcan have the auto subscribe feature enabled or not. In one aspect, thedefault is to have the auto-subscribe turned on.

FIG. 9B shows a flowchart of an example of a method 900 forautomatically subscribing a user to an object in a database system,performed in accordance with some implementations. Any of the followingblocks can be performed wholly or partially with the database system,and in particular by one or more processor of the database system.

In block 901, one or more properties of an object stored in the databasesystem are received. The properties can be received from administratorsof the database system, or from users of the database system (which maybe an administrator of a customer organization). The properties can berecords or users, and can include any of the fields of the object thatare stored in the database system. Examples of properties of a recordinclude: an owner of the record, a user that converted the record fromone record type to another record type, whether the first user hasviewed the record, and a time the first user viewed the record. Examplesof properties of a user include: which organization (tenant) the user isassociated with, the second user's position in the same organization,and which other users the user had e-mailed or worked with on projects.

In block 902, the database system receives one or more criteria aboutwhich users are to automatically follow the object. The criteria can bereceived from administrators of the database system, or from one or moreusers of the database system. The users may be an administrator of acustomer organization, which can set tenant-wide criteria or criteriafor specific users (who may also set the criteria themselves). Examplesof the criteria can include: an owner or creator of a record is tofollow the record, subordinates of an owner or creator of a record areto follow the record, a user is to follow records recently viewed(potentially after a specific number of views), records that a user haschanged values (potentially with a date requirement), records created byothers in a same business group as the user. Examples of the criteriacan also include: a user is to follow his/her manager, the user's peers,other users in the same business group as the user, and other users thatthe user has e-mailed or worked with on a project. The criteria can bespecific to a user or group of users (e.g., users of a tenant).

In block 903, the database system determines whether the one or moreproperties of the object satisfy the one or more criteria for a firstuser. In one implementation, this determination can occur by firstobtaining the criteria and then determining objects that satisfy thecriteria. The determination can occur periodically, at time of creationof an object, or at other times. If different users have differentcriteria, then the criteria for a particular user or group could besearched at the same time. Since users of different tenants normallycannot view objects of another tenant, certain criteria does not have tobe checked. In another implementation, this determination can occur bylooking at certain properties and then identifying any criteria that aremet. In yet another implementation, the criteria and properties can beused to find users that satisfy the criteria.

In block 904, if the criteria are satisfied, the object is associatedwith the first user. The association can be in a list that storesinformation as to what objects are being followed by the first user.User subscription table 940 is an example of such a list. In oneimplementation, the one or more criteria are satisfied if one propertysatisfies at least one criterion. Thus, if the criteria are that a userfollows his/her manager and the object is the user's manager, then thefirst user will follow the object.

In one implementation, a user can also be automatically unsubscribed,e.g., if a certain action happens. The action could be a change in theuser's position within the organization, e.g., a demotion or becoming acontractor. As another example, if a case gets closed, then usersfollowing the case may be automatically unsubscribed.

B. Feed and Subscription API

In one implementation, a feed and subscription center API can enabletenants to provide mechanisms for tracking and creating feed items,e.g., as described above for creating custom feeds by allowing users toadd custom events for tracking. For example, after some initial feeditems are created (e.g., by administrators of the database system),outside groups (e.g., tenants or software providers selling software tothe tenants) can ‘enable objects’ for feeds through a standard API. Thegroups can then integrate into the subscription center and the feedtracked update feeds on their own. In one implementation, the feed andsubscription center API can use a graphical user interface implementedfor the default feed tracking. In one implementation, API examplesinclude subscribing to an entity by creating a new entity subscriptionobject for a particular user ID, or for all users of a tenant (e.g.,user subscription table 940). In one implementation, obtaining allsubscriptions for a given user can be performed by using a query, suchas “select . . . from EntitySubscription where userid=‘ . . . ’”.

Some implementations have restriction on non-admin users, e.g., thosewithout view all data permissions (VAD). One restriction can be a limitclause on entity subscription queries (e.g., queries on usersubscription table 940), e.g., where the limit of the number ofoperations is less than 100. In one implementation, users are notrequired to specify an order-by, but if an order-by is specified theycan only order on fields on the entity subscription entity. In oneimplementation, filters on entity subscription can likewise only specifyfields on the entity subscription entity. In one aspect, the object IDbeing followed can be sorted or filtered, but not the object name.

In one implementation, one or more restrictions can also be placed onthe identification of feed items in a feed that a user can access. Forexample, if a low-level user (i.e. user can access few objects) isattempting to see a profile feed of a high level user, a maximum numberof checks (e.g., 500) for access rights may be allowed. Such arestriction can minimize a cost of a feed request. In someimplementations, there are restriction on the type of queries (e.g.,fields for filtering) allowed to construct on feeds (e.g., on tables inFIG. 9A).

C. Sharing

As mentioned above, users may be restricted from seeing records fromother tenants, as well as certain records from the tenant to which theuser belongs (e.g., the user's employer). Sharing rules can refer to theaccess rules that restrict a user from seeing records that the user isnot authorized to see or access. Additionally, in one implementation, auser may be restricted to only seeing certain fields of a record,field-level security (FLS).

In an implementation, access rule checks are done upon subscription. Forexample, a user is not allowed to subscribe to a record or type ofrecord that the user cannot access. In one aspect, this can minimize(but not necessarily eliminate) cases where a user subscribes toentities they cannot access. Such cases can slow down news feed queries,when an access check is performed (which can end up removing much of thefeed items). Thus, a minimization of access checks can speed upoperation. In another implementation, when feed items are createddynamically, access rule checks may be done dynamically at the time ofsubsequent access, and not upon subscription or in addition to at timeof subscription.

An example case where access checks are still performed is when a firstuser follows a second user, but the second user performs some actions onrecords or is following records that the first user is not allowed tosee. The first user may be allowed to follow the second user, and thusthe subscription is valid even though the first user may not be able tosee all of the feed items. Before a feed tracked update is provided to anews feed of the first user, a security check may be performed tovalidate whether the first user has access rights to the feed item. Ifnot, the feed item is not displayed to the first user. In oneimplementation, users can be blocked from feed items that containcertain terms, symbols, account numbers, etc. In one implementation, anyuser can follow another user. In another implementation, users may berestricted as to which users, objects, and/or records he/she can follow.

Regarding viewing privileges of a feed, in one implementation, a usercan see all of his own subscriptions (even if he's lost read access to arecord). For example, a user can become a contractor, and then the usermay lose access to some records. But, the user may still see that he/sheis following the object. This can help if there is a limit to the numberof objects that can be followed. To unsubscribe a user may need to knowwhat they are following so they can unsubscribe and subscribe to objectsthe user can see. In another implementation, for access to otherpeople's subscriptions, a user can be required to need read-access onthe record-id to see the subscription. In some implementations, userswith authorization to modify all data can create/delete anysubscription. In other implementations, a user can create/deletesubscriptions only for that user, and not anyone else.

D. Configuration of which Field to Follow

There can be various feed settings for which feed items get added toprofile and record feeds, and which get added to news feeds. In oneimplementation, for profile feeds and entity feeds, feed tracked updatescan be written for all standard and custom fields on the supportedobjects. In one implementation, feed settings can be set to limit howmany and which fields of a record are tracked for determining whether afeed tracked update is to be generated. For example, a user oradministrator can choose specific fields to track and/or certain onesnot to track. In another implementation, there is a separate limit forthe number of trackable fields (e.g., 20) for a record. Thus, onlycertain changes may be tracked in an entity feed tracked update and showup in the feed. In yet another implementation, default fields may bechosen for tracking, where the defaults can be exposed in thesubscriptions center.

IX. Adding Items to a Feed

As described above, a feed includes feed items, which include feedtracked updates and messages, as defined herein. Various feeds can begenerated. For example, a feed can be generated about a record or abouta user. Then, users can view these feeds. A user can separately view afeed of a record or user, e.g., by going to a home page for the user orthe record. As described above, a user can also follow another user orrecord and receive the feed items of those feeds through a separate feedapplication (e.g., in a page or window), which is termed “chatter” incertain examples. The feed application can provide each of the feedsthat a user is following and, in some examples, can combine variousfeeds in a single information feed.

A feed generator can refer to any software program running on aprocessor or a dedicated processor (or combination thereof) that cangenerate feed items (e.g., feed tracked updates or messages) and combinethem into a feed. In one implementation, the feed generator can generatea feed item by receiving a feed tracked update or message, identifyingwhat feeds the item should be added to, and adding the feed. Adding thefeed can include adding additional information (metadata) to the feedtracked update or message (e.g., adding a document, sender of message, adetermined importance, etc.). The feed generator can also check to makesure that no one sees feed tracked updates for data that they don't haveaccess to see (e.g., according to sharing rules). A feed generator canrun at various times to pre-compute feeds or to compute themdynamically, or combinations thereof.

In one implementation, the feed generator can de-dupe events (i.e.prevent duplicates) that may come in from numerous records (and users).For example, since a feed tracked update can be published to multiplefeeds (e.g., John Choe changed the Starbucks Account Status) and aperson can be subscribed to both the Starbucks account and John Choe,implementations can filter out duplicates before adding or displayingthe items in a news feed. Thus, the Feed Generator can collapse eventswith multiple records and users for a single transaction into a singlefeed tracked update and ensure the right number of feed tracked updatesfor the particular feed. In some implementations, an action by a userdoes not create a feed item for that user (e.g., for a profile feed ofthat user), and it is only the feed of the object being acted upon(e.g., updated) for which a feed item is created. Thus, there should notbe duplicates. For example, if someone updates the status of a record,the feed item is only for the record and not the user.

In one implementation, processor 417 in FIG. 4 can identify an eventthat meets criteria for a feed tracked update, and then generate thefeed tracked update. Processor 417 can also identify a message. Forexample, an application interface can have certain mechanisms forsubmitting a message (e.g., “submit” buttons on a profile page, detailpage of a record, “comment” button on post), and use of these mechanismscan be used to identify a message to be added to a table used to createa feed or added directly to a list of feed items ready for display.

A. Adding Items to a Pre-Computed Feed

In some implementations, a feed of feed items is created before a userrequests the feed. Such an implementation can run fast, but have highoverall costs for storage. In one implementation, once a profile feed ora record feed has been created, a feed item (messages and feed trackedupdates) can be added to the feed. The feed can exist in the databasesystem in a variety of ways, such as a related list. The feed caninclude mechanisms to remove items as well as add them.

As described above, a news feed can be an aggregated feed of all therecord feeds and profile feeds to which a user has subscribed. The newsfeed can be provided on the home page of the subscribing user.Therefore, a news feed can be created by and exist for a particularuser. For example, a user can subscribe to receive entity feeds ofcertain records that are of interest to the user, and to receive profilefeeds of people that are of interest (e.g., people on a same team, thatwork for the user, are a boss of the user, etc.). A news feed can tell auser about all the actions across all the records (and people) whom haveexplicitly (or implicitly) been subscribed to via the subscriptionscenter (described above).

In one implementation, only one instance of each feed tracked update isshown on a user's news feed, even if the feed tracked update ispublished in multiple entities to which the user is subscribed. In oneaspect, there may be delays in publishing news articles. For example,the delay may be due to queued up messages for asynchronous entity feedtracked update persistence. Different feeds may have different delays(e.g., delay for new feeds, but none of profile and entity feeds). Inanother implementation, certain feed tracked updates regarding asubscribed profile feed or an entity feed are not shown because the useris not allowed access, e.g., due to sharing rules (which restrict whichusers can see which data). Also, in one implementation, data of therecord that has been updated (which includes creation) can be providedin the feed (e.g., a file or updated value of a feed can be added as aflash rendition). Examples are provided below as how it can bedetermined which feed items to add to which news feeds. In oneimplementation, the addition of items to a news feed is driven by thefollowing user. For example, the user's profile can be checked todetermine objects the user is following, and the database may be queriedto determine updates to these objects. In another implementation, theusers and records being followed drive the addition of items to a newsfeed. Implementations can also combine these and other aspects. In oneimplementation, a database system can be follower-driven if the numberof subscriptions (users and records the user is following) is small. Forexample, since the number subscriptions are small, then changes to asmall number of objects need to be checked for the follower.

Regarding implementations that are follower-driven, one implementationcan have a routine run for a particular user. The routine knows theusers and records that the user is following. The routine can poll thedatabase system for new feed tracked updates and messages about theusers and records that are being followed. In one implementation, thepolling can be implemented as queries. In one implementation, theroutine can run at least partially (even wholly) on a user device.

Regarding implementations where a news feed is driven by the record (oruser) being followed, processor 417 can identify followers of the recordafter a feed item is added to the record feed. Processor 417 canretrieve a list of the followers from the database system. The list canbe associated with the record, and can be stored as a related list orother object that is a field or child of the record.

In one implementation, profile and record feeds can be updatedimmediately with a new feed item after an action is taken or an eventoccurs. A news feed can also be updated immediately. In anotherimplementation, a news feed can be updated in batch jobs, which can runat periodic times.

B. Dynamically Generating Feeds

In some implementations, a feed generator can generate the feed itemsdynamically when a user requests to see a particular feed, e.g., aprofile feed, entity feed, or the user's news feed. In oneimplementation, the most recent feed items (e.g., top 50) are generatedfirst. In one aspect, the other feed items can be generated as abackground process, e.g., not synchronously with the request to view thefeed. However, since the background process is likely to complete beforea user gets to the next 50 feed items, the feed generation may appearsynchronous. In another aspect, the most recent feed items may or maynot include comments, e.g., that are tied to feed tracked updates orposts.

In one implementation, the feed generator can query the appropriatesubset of tables shown in FIG. 9A and/or other tables as necessary, togenerate the feed items for display. For example, the feed generator canquery the event history table 910 for the updates that occurred for aparticular record. The ID of the particular record can be matchedagainst the ID of the record. In one implementation, changes to a wholeset of records can be stored in one table. The feed generator can alsoquery for status updates, posts, and comments, each of which can bestored in different parts of a record or in separate tables, as shown inFIG. 9A. What gets recorded in the entity event history table (as wellas what is displayed) can be controlled by a feed settings page insetup, which can be configurable by an administrator and can be the samefor the entire organization, as is described above for custom feeds.

In one implementation, there can be two feed generators. For example,one generator can generate the record and profile feeds and anothergenerator can generate news feeds. For the former, the feed generatorcan query identifiers of the record or the user profile. For the latter,the news feed generator can query the subscribed profile feeds andrecord feeds, e.g., user subscription table 940. In one implementation,the feed generator looks at a person's subscription center to decidewhich feeds to query for and return a list of feed items for the user.The list can be de-duped, e.g., by looking at the event number andvalues for the respective table, such as field name or ID, comment ID,or other information.

C. Adding Information to Feed Tracked Update Tables

FIG. 10 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1000 for savinginformation to feed tracking tables, performed in accordance with someimplementations. In one implementation, some of the blocks may beperformed regardless of whether a specific event or part of an event(e.g., only one field of an update is being tracked) is being tracked.In various implementations, a processor or set of processors (hardwiredor programmed) can perform method 1000 and any other method describedherein.

In block 1010, data indicative of an event is received. The data mayhave a particular identifier that specifies the event. For example,there may be a particular identifier for a field update. In anotherimplementation, the transaction may be investigated for keywordsidentifying the event (e.g., terms in a query indicating a close, changefield, or create operations).

In block 1020, it is determined whether the event is being tracked forinclusion into feed tracked update tables. The determination of what isbeing tracked can be based on a tenant's configuration as describedabove. In one aspect, the event has an actor (person performing anevent), and an object of the event (e.g., record or user profile beingchanged).

In block 1030, the event is written to an event history table (e.g.,table 910). In one implementation, this feed tracking operation can beperformed in the same transaction that performs a save operation forupdating a record. In another implementation, a transaction includes atleast two roundtrip database operations, with one roundtrip being thedatabase save (write), and the second database operation being thesaving of the update in the feed tracked update table. In oneimplementation, the event history table is chronological. In anotherimplementation, if user A posts on user B's profile, then user A isunder the “created by” 913 and user B is under the object ID 912.

In block 1040, a field change table (e.g., field change table 920) canbe updated with an entry having the event identifier and fields thatwere changed in the update. In one implementation, the field changetable is a child table of the event history table. This table caninclude information about each of the fields that are changed. Forexample, for an event that changes the name and balance for an accountrecord, an entry can have the event identifier, the old and new name,and the old and new balance. Alternatively, each field change can be ina different row with the same event identifier. The field name or ID canalso be included to determine which field the values are associated.

In block 1050, when the event is a post, a post table (e.g., post table950) can be updated with an entry having the event identifier and textof the post. In one implementation, the field change table is a childtable of the event history table. In another implementation, the textcan be identified in the transaction (e.g., a query command), strippedout, and put into the entry at the appropriate column. The varioustables described herein can be combined or separated in various ways.For example, the post table and the field change table may be part ofthe same table or distinct tables, or may include overlapping portionsof data.

In block 1060, a comment is received for an event and the comment isadded to a comment table (e.g., comment table 930). The comment could befor a post or an update of a record, from which a feed tracked updatecan be generated for display. In one implementation, the text can beidentified in the transaction (e.g., a query command), stripped out, andput into the entry at the appropriate column.

D. Reading Information from Feed Tracked Update Tables

FIG. 11 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1100 for reading afeed item as part of generating a feed for display, performed inaccordance with some implementations. In one implementation, the feeditem may be read as part of creating a feed for a record.

In block 1110, a query is received for an events history table (e.g.,event history table 910) for events related to a particular record. Inone implementation, the query includes an identifier of the record forwhich the feed is being requested. In various implementations, the querymay be initiated from a detail page of the record, a home page of a userrequesting the record feed, or from a listing of different records(e.g., obtained from a search or from browsing).

In block 1120, the user's security level can be checked to determine ifthe user can view the record feed. Typically, a user can view a recordfeed, if the user can access the record. This security check can beperformed in various ways. In one implementation, a first table ischecked to see if the user has a classification (e.g., a security levelthat allows him to view records of the given type). In anotherimplementation, a second table is checked to see if the user is allowedto see the specific record. The first table can be checked before thesecond table, and both tables can be different sections of a same table.If the user has requested the feed from the detail page of the record,one implementation can skip the security level check for the recordsince the check was already done when the user requested to view thedetail page.

In one implementation, a security check is determined upon each requestto view the record feed. Thus, whether or not a feed item is displayedto a user is determined based on access rights, e.g., when the userrequests to see a feed of a record or a news feed of all the objects theuser is following. In this manner, if a user's security changes, a feedautomatically adapts to the user's security level when it is changed. Inanother implementation, a feed can be computed before being requestedand a subsequent security check can be made to determine whether theperson still has access right to view the feed items. The security(access) check may be at the field level, as well as at the recordlevel.

In block 1130, if the user can access the record, a field level securitytable can be checked to determine whether the user can see particularfields. In one implementation, only those fields are displayed to theuser. Alternatively, a subset of those the user has access to isdisplayed. The field level security check may optionally be performed atthe same time and even using the same operation as the record levelcheck. In addition, the record type check may also be performed at thistime. If the user can only see certain fields, then any feed itemsrelated to those fields (e.g., as determined from field change table920) can be removed from the feed being displayed.

In block 1140, the feed items that the user has access to are displayed.In one implementation, a predetermined number (e.g., 20) of feed itemsare displayed at a time. The method can display the first 20 feed itemsthat are found to be readable, and then determine others while the useris viewing the first 20. In another implementation, the other feed itemsare not determined until the user requests to see them, e.g., byactivating a see more link.

FIG. 12 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1200 for reading afeed item of a profile feed for display, performed in accordance withsome implementations. In one implementation, the query includes anidentifier of the user profile feed that is being requested. Certainblocks may be optional, as is also true for other methods describedherein. For example, security checks may not be performed.

In block 1210, a query is directed to an event history table (e.g.,event history table 910) for events having a first user as the actor ofthe event (e.g., creation of an account) or on which the event occurred(e.g., a post to the user's profile). In various implementations, thequery may be initiated by a second user from the user's profile page, ahome page of a user requesting the profile feed (e.g., from a list ofusers being followed), or from a listing of different users (e.g.,obtained from a search or from browsing). Various mechanisms fordetermining aspects of events and obtaining information from tables canbe the same across any of the methods described herein.

In block 1220, a security check may also be performed on whether thesecond user can see the first user's profile. In one implementation anyuser can see the profile of another user of the same tenant, and block1220 is optional.

In block 1230, a security (access) check can be performed for the feedtracked updates based on record types, records, and/or fields, as wellsecurity checks for messages. In one implementation, only the feedtracked updates related to records that the person has updated are theones that need security check as the feed items about the user arereadable by any user of the same tenant. Users of other tenants are notnavigable, and thus security can be enforced at a tenant level. Inanother implementation, messages can be checked for keywords or links toa record or field that the second user does not have access.

As users can have different security classifications, it is importantthat a user with a low-level security cannot see changes to records thathave been performed by a user with high-level security. In oneimplementation, each feed item can be checked and then the viewableresults displayed, but this can be inefficient. For example, such asecurity check may take a long time, and the second user would like toget some results sooner rather than later. The following blocksillustrate one implementation of how security might be checked for afirst user that has a lot of feed items, but the second user cannot seemost of them. This implementation can be used for all situations, butcan be effective in the above situation.

In block 1231, a predetermined number of entries are retrieved from theevent history table (e.g., starting from the most recent, which may bedetermined from the event identifier). The retrieved entries may just beones that match the user ID of the query. In one implementation, entriesare checked to find the entries that are associated with the user andwith a record (i.e. not just posts to the user account). In anotherimplementation, those entries associated with the user are allowed to beviewed, e.g., because the second user can see the profile of the firstuser as determined in block 1220.

In block 1232, the record identifiers are organized by type and the typeis checked on whether the second user can see the record types. Otherchecks such as whether a record was manually shared (e.g., by the owner)can also be performed. In one implementation, the queries for thedifferent types can be done in parallel.

In block 1233, if a user can see the record type, then a check can beperformed on the specific record. In one implementation, if a user cansee a record type, then the user can see all of the records of thattype, and so this block can be skipped. In another implementation, thesharing model can account for whether a user below the second user(e.g., the second user is a manager) can see the record. In such animplementation, the second user may see such a record. In oneimplementation, if a user cannot see a specific record, then comments onthat record are also not viewable.

In block 1234, field level sharing rules can be used to determinewhether the second user can see information about an update or value ofcertain fields. In one implementation, messages can be analyzed todetermine if reference to a particular field name is made. If so, thenfield level security can be applied to the messages.

In block 1280, blocks 1231-1234 are repeated until a stopping criterionis met. In one implementation, the stopping criteria may be when amaximum number (e.g., 100) of entries that are viewable have beenidentified. In another implementation, the stopping criteria can be thata maximum number (e.g., 500) of entries from the entity feed trackedupdate table have been analyzed, regardless of whether the entries areviewable or not.

In one implementation, a news feed can be generated as a combination ofthe profile feeds and the entity feeds, e.g., as described above. In oneimplementation, a list of records and user profiles for the queries inblocks 1110 and 1210 can be obtained form user subscription table 940.In one implementation, there is a maximum number of objects that can befollowed.

In various implementations, the entity feed table can be queried for anyone or more of the following matching variables as part of determiningitems for a feed: CreatedDate, CreatedByld, CreatedBy.FirstName,CreatedBy.LastName, ParentId, and Parent.Name. The child tables can alsobe queried for any one or more of the following matching variables aspart of determining items for a feed: DataType, FieldName, OldValue, andNewValue. A query can also specify how the resulting feed items can besorted for display, e.g., by event number, date, importance, etc. Thequery can also include a number of items to be returned, which can beenforced at the server.

The two examples provided above can be done periodically to create thefeeds ahead of time or done dynamically at the time the display of afeed is requested. Such a dynamic calculation can be computationallyintensive for a news feed, particularly if many users and records arebeing followed, although there can be a low demand for storage.Accordingly, one implementation performs some calculations ahead of timeand stores the results in order to create a news feed.

E. Partial Pre-Computing of Items for a Feed

FIG. 13 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1300 of storingevent information for efficient generation of feed items to display in afeed, performed in accordance with some implementations. In variousimplementations, method 1300 can be performed each time an event iswritten to the event history table, or periodically based on some othercriteria (e.g., every minute, after five updates have been made, etc.).

In block 1310, data indicative of an event is received. The data may bethe same and identified in the same way as described for block 1010. Theevent may be written to an event history table (e.g., table 910).

In block 1320, the object(s) associated with the event are identified.In various implementations, the object may be identified by according tovarious criteria, such as the record being changed, the user changingthe record, a user posting a message, and a user whose profile themessage is being posted to.

In block 1330, the users following the event are determined. In oneimplementation, one or more objects that are associated with the eventare used to determine the users following the event. In oneimplementation, a subscription table (e.g., table 940) can be used tofind the identified objects. The entries of the identified objects cancontain an identifier (e.g., user ID 941) of each the users followingthe object

In block 1340, the event and the source of the event, e.g., a record(for a record update) or a posting user (for a user-generated post) arewritten to a news feed table along with an event identifier. In oneimplementation, such information is added as a separate entry into thenews feed table along with the event ID. In another implementation, eachof the events for a user is added as a new column for the row of theuser. In yet another implementation, more columns (e.g., columns fromthe other tables) can be added.

News feed table 960 shows an example of such a table with user ID 961and event ID or pointer 962. The table can be organized in any manner.One difference from event history table 910 is that one event can havemultiple entries (one for each subscriber) in the news feed table 960.In one implementation, all of the entries for a same user are groupedtogether, e.g., as shown. The user U819 is shown as following events E37and E90, and thus any of the individual feed items resulting from thoseevents. In another implementation, any new entries are added at the endof the table. Thus, all of the followers for a new event can be added asa group. In such an implementation, the event IDs would generally begrouped together in the table. Of course, the table can be sorted in anysuitable manner.

In an implementation, if the number of users is small, then the feeditems in one or more of the tables may be written as part of the samewrite transaction. In one implementation, the determination of smalldepends on the number of updates performed for the event (e.g., amaximum number of update operations may be allowed), and if moreoperations are performed, then the addition of the feed items isperformed. In one aspect, the number of operations can be counted by thenumber of rows to be updated, including the rows of the record (whichdepends on the update event), and the rows of the feed tracked updatetables, which can depend on the number of followers. In anotherimplementation, if the number of users is large, the rest of the feeditems can be created by batch. In one implementation, the feed items arewritten as part of a different transaction, i.e., by batch job.

In one implementation, security checks can be performed before an entryis added to the news feed table 960. In this manner, security checks canbe performed during batch jobs and may not have to be performed at thetime of requesting a news feed. In one implementation, the event can beanalyzed and if access is not allowed to a feed item of the event, thenan entry is not added. In one aspect, multiple feed items for a sameuser may not result from a same event (e.g., by how an event is definedin table 910), and thus there is no concern about a user missing a feeditem that he/she should be able to view.

In block 1350, a request for a news feed is received from a user. In oneimplementation, the request is obtained when a user navigates to theuser's home page. In another implementation, the user selects a table,link, or other page item that causes the request to be sent.

In block 1360, the news feed table and other tables are accessed toprovide displayable feed items of the news feed. The news feed can thenbe displayed. In one implementation, the news feed table can then bejoined with the event history table to determine the feed items. Forexample, the news feed table 960 can be searched for entries with aparticular user ID. These entries can be used to identify event entriesin event history table 910, and the proper information from any childtables can be retrieved. The feed items (e.g., feed tracked updates andmessages) can then be generated for display.

In one implementation, the most recent feed items (e.g., 100 mostrecent) are determined first. The other feed items may then bedetermined in a batch process. Thus, the feed item that a user is mostlikely to view can come up first, and the user may not recognize thatthe other feed items are being done in batch. In one implementation, themost recent feed items can be gauged by the event identifiers. Inanother implementation, the feed items with a highest importance levelcan be displayed first. The highest importance being determined by oneor more criteria, such as, who posted the feed item, how recently, howrelated to other feed items, etc.

In one implementation where the user subscription table 940 is used todynamically create a news feed, the query would search the subscriptiontable, and then use the object IDs to search the event history table(one search for each object the user is following). Thus, the query forthe news feed can be proportional to the number of objects that one wassubscribing to. The news feed table allows the intermediate block ofdetermining the object IDs to be done at an earlier stage so that therelevant events are already known. Thus, the determination of the feedis no longer proportional to the number of object being followed.

In some implementations, a news feed table can include a pointer (asopposed to an event identifier) to the event history table for eachevent that is being followed by the user. In this manner, the evententries can immediately be retrieved without having to perform a searchon the event history table. Security checks can be made at this time,and the text for the feed tracked updates can be generated.

X. Display of a Feed

Feeds include messages and feed tracked updates and can show up in manyplaces in an application interface with the database system. In oneimplementation, feeds can be scoped to the context of the page on whichthey are being displayed. For example, how a feed tracked update ispresented can vary depending on which page it is being displayed (e.g.,in news feeds, on a detail page of a record, and even based on how theuser ended up at a particular page). In another implementation, only afinite number of feed items are displayed (e.g., 50). In oneimplementation, there can be a limit specifically on the number of feedtracked updates or messages displayed. Alternatively, the limit can beapplied to particular types of feed tracked updates or messages. Forexample, only the most recent changes (e.g., 5 most recent) for a fieldmay be displayed. Also, the number of fields for which changes aredisplayed can also be limited. Such limits can also be placed on profilefeeds and news feeds. In one implementation, feed items may also besubject to certain filtering criteria before being displayed, e.g., asdescribed below.

A. Sharing Rules for Feeds

As mentioned above, a user may not be allowed to see all of the recordsin the database, and not even all of the records of the organization towhich the user belongs. A user can also be restricted from viewingcertain fields of a record that the user is otherwise authorized toview. Accordingly, certain implementations use access rules (also calledsharing rules and field-level security FLS) to ensure that a user doesnot view a feed tracked update or message that the user is notauthorized to see. A feed of a record can be subject to the same accessrules as the parent record.

In one implementation, access rules can be used to prevent subscriptionto a record that the user cannot see. In one implementation, a user cansee a record, but only some of the fields. In such instances, only itemsabout fields that the user can access may be displayed. In anotherimplementation, sharing rules and FLS are applied before a feed item isbeing added to a feed. In another implementation, sharing rules and FLSare applied after a feed item has been added and when the feed is beingdisplayed. When a restriction of display is mentioned, the enforcementof access rules may occur at any stage before display.

In some implementations, the access rules can be enforced when a queryis provided to a record or a user's profile to obtain feed items for anews feed of a user. The access rules can be checked andcross-references with the feed items that are in the feed. Then, thequery can only return feed items for which the user has access.

In other implementations, the access rules can be enforced when a userselects a specific profile feed or record feed. For example, when a userarrives on a home page (or selects a tab to see the record feed), thedatabase system can check to see which feed items the user can see. Insuch an implementation, each feed item can be associated with metadatathat identifies which field the feed item is about. Thus, in oneimplementation, a feed tracked update is not visible unless theassociated record and/or field are visible to the user.

In one example, when a user accesses a feed of a record, an access checkcan be performed to identify whether the user can access the object typeof the record. In one implementation, users are assigned a profile type,and the profile type is cross-referenced (e.g., by checking a table) todetermine whether the profile type of the user can see the object typeof the record.

In some implementations, access to specific records can be checked,e.g., after it has been determined that the user can access the recordtype. Rules can be used to determine the records viewable by a user.Such rules can determine the viewable records as a combination of thoseviewable by profile type, viewable due to a profile hierarchy (e.g., aboss can view records of profile types lower in the hierarchy), andviewable by manual sharing (e.g., as may be done by an owner of arecord). In one implementation, the records viewable by a user can bedetermined beforehand and stored in a table. In one implementation, thetable can be cross-referenced by user (or profile type of a user) toprovide a list of the records that the user can see, and the list can besearched to determine if the record at issue is among the list. Inanother implementation, the table can be cross-referenced by record todetermine a list of the profile types that can access the record, andthe list can be searched to find out if the requesting user is in thelist. In another implementation, the records viewable by a user can bedetermined dynamically at the time of the access check, e.g., byapplying rules to data (such as user profile and hierarchy information)obtained from querying one or more tables.

In other implementations, checks can be made as to whether a user hasaccess to certain fields of a record, e.g., after it has been determinedthat the user can access the record. In one aspect, the access check onfields can be performed on results already obtained from the database,to filter out fields that the user cannot see. In one implementation,the fields associated with retrieved feed items are determined, andthese fields are cross-referenced with an access table that contains thefields accessible by the user (e.g., using the profile type of theuser). Such an access table could also be a negative access table byspecifying fields that the user cannot see, as can other access tablesmentioned herein. In one implementation, the field level access table isstored in cache at a server.

In one implementation, a user can see the same fields across all recordsof a certain type (e.g., as long as the user can see the record). In oneimplementation, there is a field level access table for each objecttype. The access table can be cross-referenced by user (e.g., viaprofile type) or field. For example, a field can be identified alongwith the profile types that can see the field, and it can be determinedwhether the user's profile type is listed. In another example, the usercan be found and the fields to which the user has access can beobtained. In another implementation, the accessible fields could bespecified for each record.

Regarding profile feeds and news feeds, a first user may perform anaction on a record, and a feed tracked update may be generated and addedto the first user's profile feed. A second user who is allowed to followthe first user may not have access rights to the record. Thus, the feedtracked update can be excluded from a news feed of the second user, orwhen the second user views the first user's profile feed directly. Inone implementation, if a user is already on the detail page, thenanother access check (at least at the record level) may optionally notbe performed since a check was already done in order to view the detailpage.

In some implementations, for profile feeds and news feeds, the feeditems can be organized by object type. IT can then be determined whetherthe requesting user can access to those object types. Other accesschecks can be done independently or in conjunction with these accesschecks, as is described above.

B. API Implementation

Various implementations can implement the access rules in various ways.In one implementation, all recent feed items (or more generally events)are retrieved from a feed that is ready for display (e.g., after a feedgenerator performs formatting) or a table. Then, bulk sharing checks canbe applied on the retrieved items. The viewable feed items of the mostrecent set can then be displayed.

In another implementation regarding a profile feed, for non-VAD (viewall data) users, i.e. users who can see everything, certain functionscan be overridden. In one implementation, a FROM clause in a query canbe overridden to be a pipelined function, e.g., with different parts ofthe query being operated on at the same time, but with differentoperations of a pipeline. This pipeline function can be given a rowlimit and the maximum number of sharing checks to run. It can loop,selecting the next batch of rows, run sharing checks against them inbulk, and pipe back any IDs which are accessible. In one aspect, innearly all cases, the user feed can contain accessible IDs so thesharing checks can pass on the first loop. However, it is possible thesharing may have changed such that this user's access is greatlyreduced. In one worst case, implementations can run sharing checks on upto the maximum number of sharing check rows (e.g., a default 500) andthen terminate the function with the IDs which passed so far, possiblyzero. Such an example includes a low level person viewing profile feedof CEO.

In some implementations, if the user has a small number of subscriptions(e.g., <25), then implementations can first run sharing checks on thoseIDs and then drive the main query from those accessible IDs, as opposedto a semi-join against the subscription and running sharing checks onthe resulting rows. In other implementations, FLS is enforced bybuilding up a TABLE CAST of the accessible field IDs from the cachedvalues. A main query can then join against this table to filter onlyaccessible fields.

XI. Filtering and Searching Feeds

It can be possible that a user subscribes to many users and records,which can cause a user's news feed to be very long and include many feeditems. In such instances, it can be difficult for the user to read everyfeed item, and thus some important or interesting feed items may not beread. In some implementations, filters may be used to determine whichfeed items are added to a feed or displayed in the feed, even though auser may be authorized to see more than what is displayed. Section VII.Ealso provides a description of filtering based on criteria.

In one implementation, an “interestingness” filter can function as amodule for controlling/recommending which feed tracked updates make itto the news feed when the number of items that a user subscribes to islarge. In one such implementation, a user can specify a filter, which isapplied to a user's news feed or to record and profile feeds that theuser requests. Different filters can be used for each. For example,processing can be done on the news feed to figure out which feed trackedupdates are the most relevant to the user. One implementation can use animportance weight and level/ranking, as described herein. Otherimplementations can include a user specifying keywords for a message andspecifying which records or users are most important.

In one implementation, a filter can be used that only allows certainfeed items to be added to a feed and/or to be displayed as part of afeed. A filter can be used such that the removal or non-addition ofcertain feed items automatically occur for any new feed items after thefilter criteria are entered. The filter criteria can also be addedretroactively. The criteria of such a filter can be applied via a querymechanism as part of adding a feed item to a table or displaying a feed,as described in sections above. In various implementations, a user candirectly write a query or create the query through a graphical userinterface.

FIG. 14 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1400 for creating acustom feed for users of a database system using filtering criteria,performed in accordance with some implementations. Any of the followingblocks can be performed wholly or partially with the database system,and in particular by one or more processor of the database system.

In block 1410, one or more criteria specifying which feed items are tobe displayed to a first user are received from a tenant. In oneimplementation, the criteria specifies which items to add to the customfeed. For example, the criteria could specify to only include feed itemsfor certain fields of a record, messages including certain keywords, andother criteria mentioned herein. In another implementation, the criteriaspecifies which items to remove from the custom feed. For example, thecriteria could specify not to include feed items about certain fields orincluding certain keywords.

In block 1420, the database system identifies feed items of one or moreselected objects that match the criteria. The feed items can be storedin the database, e.g., in one or more of the tables of FIG. 9A. In oneimplementation, the one or more selected objects are the objects thatthe first user is following. In another implementation, the one or moreselected objects is a single record whose record feed the first user isrequesting.

In block 1430, the feed items that match the criteria are displayed tothe first user in the custom feed. The generation of text for a feedtracked update can occur after the identification of the feed items(e.g., data for a field change) and before the display of the finalversion of the feed item.

In one implementation, the criteria are received before a feed item iscreated. In another implementation, the criteria are received from thefirst user. In one aspect, the criteria may only used for determiningfeeds to display to the first user. In yet another implementation, thecriteria are received from a first tenant and applies to all of theusers of the first tenant. Also, in an implementation where a pluralityof criteria are specified, the criteria may be satisfied for a feed itemif one criterion is satisfied.

Some implementations can provide mechanisms to search for feed items ofinterest. For example, the feed items can be searched by keyword, e.g.,as entered by a user. As another example, a tab (or other selectiondevice) can show feed items about or from a particular user. In oneimplementation, only messages (or even just comments) from a particularuser can be selected.

In another implementation, a user can enter search criteria so that thefeed items currently displayed are searched and a new list of matchingfeed items is displayed. A search box can be used to enter keywords.Picklists, menus, or other mechanisms can be used to select searchcriteria. In yet another implementation, feed comments are text-indexedand searchable. Feed comments accessibility and visibility can apply onthe search operation too.

In one implementation, when a user performs a search of feeds, there canbe an implicit filter of the user (e.g., by user ID). This can restrictthe search to only the news feed of the user, and thus to only recordfeeds and profile feeds that the user is subscribed. In anotherimplementation, searches can also be done across feeds of users andrecords that are not being subscribed.

Besides searching for feed items that match a criteria, one also couldsearch for a particular feed item. However, in one implementation, auser cannot directly query a feed item or feed comment. In such animplementation, a user can query to obtain a particular profile orrecord feed, and then navigate to the feed item (e.g., as child of theparent feed). In another implementation, the relationship from a feed toits parent entity (e.g., a record or user profile) is uni-directional.That is a user can navigate from the feed to the parent but not viceversa.

In one implementation, a user can directly query the child tables, e.g.,comment table 930. Thus, a user could search for comments only that userhas made, or comments that contain certain words. In anotherimplementation, a user can search for a profile feed of only one user.In yet another implementation, a user can search for profile feeds ofmultiple users (e.g., by specifying multiple user names or IDs), whichcan be combined into a single feed.

XII. Maintaining Records for Follower's Feeds

If every feed item is stored and maintained on a follower's feed or evenin the profile and/or record feeds, the amount of data to be storedcould be massive, enough to cause storage issues in the system. In oneimplementation, the N (e.g., 50) most recent feed items for each feedare kept. However, there can be a need to keep certain older feed items.Thus, implementations can remove certain feed items, while keepingothers. In other implementations, old feed tracked updates may bearchived in a data store separate from where recent feed items arestored.

In some implementations, feeds are purged by a routine (also called areaper) that can remove items deemed not worthy to keep (e.g., olditems). Any underlying data structures from which feed items are createdcan also be purged. In one implementation, the reaper can remove certainitems when new items are added (e.g., after every 5th item added). Asanother example, feed items may be deleted synchronously during the saveoperation itself. However, this may slow down each save operation. Inone implementation, however, this may be better than incurring a largercost when the items are removed at longer intervals. In anotherimplementation, the reaper can run periodically as a batch process. Suchroutines can ensure that a table size does not become too large. In oneaspect, a reaper routine can keep the event history table relativelysmall so the sharing checks are not extremely expensive.

In various implementations, the reaper can maintain a minimum number(e.g., 50 or 100) of feed items per record, maintain a minimum number ofrecords per user (e.g., per user ID), and not deleting feed items (orentire records), which have comments against it. Such implementationscan ensure that the detail page and profile page have sufficient data todisplay in a feed. Note that the sharing checks for feed queries can cutdown the number of records further for users with less access. Thus, thenumber of records finally displayed for specific users can besignificantly less than a minimum number for a specific profile orrecord feed. In one implementation, a reaper deletes data that is olderthan a specified time (e.g., 6 months or a year).

In one implementation, the reaper can perform the deletion of feed items(purging) as a batch up deletion. This can avoid deletion of largenumber of records that may lead to locking issues. In anotherimplementation, the reaper can be run often so that the table does notbecome difficult to manage (e.g., size-wise). In this way the reaper canwork on a limited set of records. In one implementation, the reaper mayhave logic that deletes certain items (e.g., by an identification) fromtables (e.g., those in FIG. 9A), or sections of the tables.

XIII. Processing a Preference Indication for a Feed Item in anInformation Feed

Some implementations disclosed herein provide mechanisms to configureand perform custom rules, described in greater detail below, to executeone or more actions to process a preference indication for a feed itemin an information feed. A custom rule may be configured to process avariety of preference indications, such as a selection of a like button,a selection of an unlike button, detecting an information update and/orcomment including keywords, or any other indication that an entityendorses information associated with a feed item.

In some implementations, a custom rule may be configured to process apreference indication based on a content type of a feed item. When apreference indication is received for a feed item including a specifiedcontent type, then one or more actions designated by the custom rule areperformed. In some instances, the content type of a feed item may bedetermined by querying a database for information associated with a feeditem. In other instances, a message including a unique identifier may becommunicated from a client device to one more servers when a preferenceindication is transmitted to the one or more servers. The uniqueidentifier may include information of the content type of the feed item.

The content type of a feed item may be any defined category ofinformation that activates the custom rule to perform one or moreactions in response to receiving a preference indication for a feeditem. The content type may be specified by a menu selection, by customcode, or by any other mechanism.

In some implementations, a custom rule may be configured and performedto process a preference indication based on information associated withan entity. An entity may be a user, a group, a record, or otherconstruct in the online social network, as described in the examplesherein. When a preference indication is received from an entityassociated with designated information, then one or more actionsdesignated by the custom rule are performed. The entity information maybe specified by menu selection, by custom code, or by any othermechanism.

In some implementations, a custom rule may be configured to perform oneor more actions in response to receiving a preference indication for afeed item. The one or more actions are performed when it is determinedthat a feed item is associated with the custom rule. A feed item isdetermined to be associated with a custom rule if the feed item includesinformation, such as a content type, specified by the custom rule. Inother instances, a feed item is associated with a custom rule based onentity information or based on a combination of entity information andthe content type of a feed item. The one or more action may include anyoperation or activity within the social networking system or within alarger computing services environment associated with the feed item. Theone or more actions may be specified by a menu selection, by customcode, or by any other mechanism.

In some implementations, a custom rule may be configured to perform oneor more actions to modify information of a feed item associated with apreference indication and modify information of further feed items in asocial networking system. For instance, the one or more actions may beperformed when it is determined that the feed item associated with thepreference indication is related to further feed items in the socialnetworking system. A relationship between the feed items may be based onvarious types of information, such as based on the content types of thefeed items, based on a user's profile information or a user's historicalsearch information. The operations to determine a relationship amongfeed items may be specified by a menu selection, by custom code, or byany other mechanism.

FIG. 15 shows a flow diagram of an example of a method 1500 forconfiguring a custom rule to process a preference indication, performedin accordance with some implementations. In some implementations, themethod 1500 may be performed at least in part at a computing deviceconfigured to provide computing services associated with a socialnetworking system. The method 1500 may be initiated when a request tocreate a custom rule is received at 1502.

At 1502, a request to create a custom rule is received. In someimplementations, the request may be generated at a client machine incommunication with the computing device. For example, a user at theclient machine may wish to create a user-defined custom rule to performcustom actions to process a preference indication of a feed item in aninformation feed.

In some implementations, the request to create a custom rule may begenerated from within the social networking system. For example, anautomatic process may identify and make statistical associations betweenpreferences of an entity associated with specific information andcontent type of one or more feed items. This process may determine thata custom rule should be created to link the identified entityinformation and content type.

In some implementations, a custom rule may be created at least in partwith the use of a software package that includes a custom rule frameworkor toolkit. The software package may be accessible via an on-demandservice environment available via a network. The custom rule frameworkmay be programmed in a programming language such as C++, Java or Apex.The custom rule framework may define a software programming factoryobject, such as a static or abstract factory object, to configure acustom rule. The software programming factory object can be used tocreate different programming objects to customize the processing of apreference indication. The custom rule framework may be utilized todefine a custom factory object to create a variety of software objectsthat specify content type, entity information, one or more actions toprocess a preference indication, graphical user interface components toprovide a mechanism to endorse content associated with a feed item, orother information related to configuring a custom rule.

In some implementations, a user may create a custom rule at least inpart with the use of a graphical user interface (GUI). FIG. 19 shows animage of a user interface for configuring a custom rule, generatedaccording to one or more implementations. The custom rule name interface1902 allows a user to provide a name of the custom rule. In FIG. 19, thename of the custom rule is “MusicLike Rule.” The description interface1904 allows a user to provide a description of the custom rule. Thepreference indication interface 1906 allows a user to indicate differenttrigger events, conditions or preference indication types that activatethe custom rule. In FIG. 19, a user may select among various preferenceindication types, such as a button click of a like button 1908, a buttonclick of an unlike button 1910, detecting a post of an informationupdate 1912 on an information feed, detecting a post of a comment 1914on an information feed, composition of an email message 1916. In thisimplementation, the user selected the like button 1908. As such, whenone or more servers, such as servers described in FIG. 2B or othercomputing devices described herein, receive a preference indicationafter a user selects a like button, the one or more servers executeoperations to activate the MusicLike rule.

In some implementations, a user may specify one or more preferenceindication keywords 1918 to activate the custom rule. In FIG. 19, thekeywords specified are “Like,” “Love” and “Great Music!”. As such, whenone or more of these trigger words are detected in a feed item, then oneor more servers or computing devices described herein perform one ormore actions as specified by the MusicLike Rule. The content typeinterface 1920 allows a user to specify one or more types of informationthat activate the custom rule. In FIG. 19, the content types selectedare Music Album, Song and Musician. When a preference indication isreceived for a feed item including a music album, a song or informationabout a musician, then one or more actions defined by the MusicLike ruleare performed. The entity type interface 1922 allows a user to specifyinformation associated with an entity that triggers the activation ofthe custom rule. In FIG. 19, the entity types selected are critic,artist and fan. As such, when a critic selects a like button for a feeditem including a music album, then one or more actions specified by theMusicLike rule are performed.

The weight interface 1924 allows a user to specify a quantitative valueto indicate the importance of receiving a preference indication from oneentity compared to another entity. For instance, in FIG. 19, the weightassociated with a critic of a music album is 3, and the weightsassociated with an artist and a fan is 2 and 1, respectively. In thisscenario, a weight of 3 indicates that a critic's preference indicationis of higher importance than an artist's or a fan's preferenceindication. In some implementations, the weight may be used to rank andorder the appearance of a preference indication associated with a feeditem in an information feed. For example, a critic's preferenceindication may appear before the preference indications of an artist anda fan.

The action interface 1926 allows a user to designate one or more actionsto perform when a custom rule is activated. In FIG. 19, a user selectedthe action “related,” which causes one or more related feed to beupdated to indicate that a critic also endorses the related feed items.In some instances, determining whether one or more feed items arerelated can be based on a relevance measure as described in greaterdetail below. Such a relevance measure may be used to determine whetherone or more feed items include the same content type. For example, aftera critic indicates a preference for a feed item including MichaelJackson's Thriller album, then the MusicLike rule include instructionsto determine whether other feed items include songs from the Thrilleralbum. If a feed item includes the song “Beat It” from the album, thenthe feed item is related and modified to indicate that the critic alsolikes the song “Beat It.” Various other operations may be performed todetermine a relevance measure as described in greater detail below. Auser may select various other actions depending on the content typeand/or the entity type. In FIG. 19, a user may upload a computer programincluding instruction to perform a user's custom actions. In someinstance, in FIG. 19, may select an action, such as email followers. Assuch when a critic “likes” a feed item including a song, then an emailnotification is sent to the critic's followers that the critic “likes” aparticular song.

The display component interface 1928 allows a user to specify customselectable graphical user interface, such as a button or a link, thatcan be displayed on a client device. The display component can be usedto allow a user on a client device to select the display component andtransmit a preference indication for a feed item to one or more serversor computing devices described herein. In FIG. 19, a user selected a twothumbs up graphical display, such that when an entity views a feed itemincluding a music album, then the graphical user interface button willinclude an image of two thumbs up. In some instances, a user may uploada custom computer program including instructions for a custom displaycomponent. In other instances, the user may select display componentsprovided by the system. For example, in FIG. 19, a user selected adefault display, which causes a single thumb up button to be displayedon a fan's client device while viewing a feed item including informationabout a music album.

After a user specifies different preference indications, content types,entity types and actions, the user may use the GUI to save the MusicLikeRule. When the user selects the save button 1930, the custom rule isstored on one or more servers or other computing devices as describedherein. In some implementations, instead of using the GUI of FIG. 19, acustom rule may be created using an object-oriented computer programminglanguage, such as C++, Java, or Apex. For instance, a user may programcode to implement a computer programming factory object to create acustom rule. A computer programming factory object may be implemented tocreate instances of programming objects to process preferenceindications of feed items based on different conditions, such as acontent type associated with a feed item or entity information.

At 1504, preference indication instruction to activate a custom rule isdetermined. The preference indication instruction may specify variouspreference indication types to trigger the activation of a custom rule.The preference indication instruction may include operations to detect amouse click event of a like button, key press event, or monitor feeditems for designated key words to trigger the activation of a customrule.

For example and as illustrated in FIG. 19, a custom rule may designatevarious preference indicators to activate a custom rule, such as theselection of a Like button 1908, selection of an Unlike button 1910,detecting a post of an information update 1912 and/or a comment 1914, orthe composition of an email 1916. The custom rule may further designatekeywords, such as “like,” “love” and “Great Music!” 1918, to activate acustom rule.

In some implementations, the preference indication instruction mayinclude computer programming code specifying various preferenceindicators to activate a custom rule. The preference indicationinstruction may also include operations to monitor and/or detect apreference indication as specified by a custom rule. For example, thepreference indication instruction may include operations for monitoringfeed items that include keywords. In this example, the preferenceindication instruction may include operations for analyzing a string inan information update and/or a comment and determine if the stringmatches the string defined as a preference indication by the customrule. These operations may include instruction for regular expressionanalysis. In another example, the preference indication instruction mayinclude event-driven programming operations to detect a selection of abutton, a mouse click event or any other event initiated on a clientdevice.

In some implementations, the preference indication instructiondesignating a preference indication to activate a custom rule may beprovided via user input. For example, a user may provide or select ascript containing computer language instructions to designate and detecta preference indication to perform one or more action of a custom rule.

In some implementations, the preference indication instruction forspecifying a preference indication to activate a custom rule may begenerated at a server. For example in FIG. 19, a user may select amongvarious trigger events, such as a button click of a like button 1908, abutton click of an unlike button 1910, detecting a post of aninformation update 1912 on an information feed, detecting a post of acomment 1914, composition of an email message 1916. Additionally oralternatively, a user may select various keywords 1918 to activate acustom rule. In this case, the server may determine executable code tomonitor information feeds or feed items for keywords specified by theuser.

In FIG. 15, at 1506, content type instruction is determined. The contenttype instruction may designate one or more content types to trigger theperformance of one or more actions to process a preference indication.The content type may be specified as any information related to a topic,genre or some other categorization of information.

In some implementations, the content type may be defined as a specificfeed item. For instance, the content type may be defined as any post inan information feed. As such, when one or more servers receive apreference indication associated with a post, the one or more servers orother computing device perform one or more actions as defined by thecustom rule. In some other instances, the content type may be defined asany user-submitted messages or comments. In some instances, the contenttype may be defined as any feed item including hyperlinks to socialnetwork data or other network data such as various documents and/or webpages on the Internet. In yet some other instances, the content type maybe defined as a feed item including multimedia data.

In some implementations, the content type may be designated as acategory of information. For instance, the content type may be specifiedas any information related to music, movies, books, celebrity gossip,cars, sports, travel or technology. For example, the content type may bespecified as any feed item including information related to KimKardashian. In this example, when a preference indication is detectedand associated with a feed item including a picture,words/phrases/statements or hyperlinks related to Kim Kardashian, thenone or more actions may be performed according to a custom rule. In thisexample, the custom rule may define operations to provide a userassociated with the preference indication a ticket to Kim's New Year'sEve party in Las Vegas.

In some implementations, the content type may be specified as anyinformation related to records, such as cases, accounts, oropportunities, stored in a database. In some other implementations, thecontent type may be specified as any information related to a group ofusers of the online social networking system, a corporation, academicinstitutions or any other type of organization or group.

In some implementations, the content type instruction may includecomputer programming language code for detecting whether a feed item isassociated with one or more content types designated by a custom rule.For example, the content type instruction may include code that includesoperations for analyzing a string in an information update related to adesignated content type. For instance, the code may include instructionsfor regular expression analysis to determine whether an informationupdate includes the string “Kim Kardashian” or “Kardashian.” In anotherexample, the content type instruction may include code that includesoperations for searching and analyzing metadata associated with a feeditem that includes a keyword. For instance, the code may includeinstructions to analyze pictures for a tag that includes the keyword“Kim Kardashian.” In some implementations, a message may be communicatedfrom a client device to one or more servers. The message may include aunique identifier that specifies the content type of a feed item.

In some implementations, computer programming language code fordesignating one or more content types may be provided via user input.For instance, a user may provide code that overrides abstract methods toimplement a custom rule.

In some implementations, computer programming language code fordetermining whether a feed item includes one or more designated contenttypes may be generated at a server. For instance, a user may indicatethat a custom rule should have one or more content types in whichdifferent properties associated with a feed item are analyzed todetermine whether the feed item includes a designated content type. Inthis case, the server may determine executable code to search for a feeditem based on the content type indicated by the user.

At 1508, entity information instruction for designating informationassociated with an entity to trigger the performance of one or moreactions to process a preference indication is determined. The entityinformation may be defined as a particular entity or as a status orprofile information associated with an entity. An entity may be a user,a group, a record, or other construct in the online social network.

In some implementations, the entity information instruction maydesignate particular users, groups or records that cause the activationof a custom rule. For example, Jay, Gloria and Manny may be designatedas users whose preference indications activate a custom rule. As such,when a preference indication, such as a “Like” of an information update,is received from Jay, Gloria and/or Manny, then one or more actions maybe performed to process the preference indication.

In some implementations, the entity information instruction may specifyprofile information associated with an entity that may cause one or moreactions to be performed to process a preference indication. Forinstance, entity information instruction may be an entity associatedwith a specific geographic location. For example, a GeoLike custom rulemay be configured to apply to any entity that lives in or is from SanFrancisco, Calif. In this example, when a user, who lives in SanFrancisco, views an information feed with feed items on a display of theuser's computing device (e.g., laptop, mobile device), then each feeditem is displayed on the computing device with a selectable graphicaluser interface button with a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge insteadof a picture with a thumbs up. As such, a user living in San Francisco,can select a graphical user interface button depicting the Golden GateBridge to endorse content of a feed item.

In some other instances, the entity information instruction may includevarious other types of profile information, such as a specific user'seducation information, particular birth date, employment information,hobby information, relationship status and/or gender information. Forexample, a SalesTeamLike rule is configured to provide customizedprocessing of a preference indication based on a user's role in ABCCorporation's sales team. In this example, if a Director of the salesteam “likes” a feed item including information about ABC Corporation'squarterly sales figures, then each employee, such as the ProgramManagers and the Sales Associates, on the sales team receive aninformation update. The information update includes a message that theDirector likes the quarterly sales figures. However, if a ProgramManager of the sales team “likes” the feed item including informationabout ABC Corporation's quarterly sales figures, the SalesTeamLike rulemay be configured to send information updates to only the SalesAssociates managed by the Program Manager.

Typically, when an information feed is displayed on a client device, thefeed items are displayed in a chronological order, with the new feeditems presented first in an information feed and older feed itemspresented toward the end of the information feed. As a result, in someinstances, it can be difficult for any user viewing the presentation ofthe information feed displayed on a client device to view the feed itemsin an order of importance of a feed item. As such, a user needs toscroll up and down through the information feed and independently make adetermination of the relative importance of each feed item in aninformation feed, which can be time consuming and cumbersome.

In some implementations, a custom rule may be configured to associate apreference indication of a particular entity with a weighted valuerepresenting the importance of a preference indication of the particularentity. Referring back to the SalesTeamLike rule, the rule may befurther configured to associate a weighted value based on a user's rolein ABC Corporation's sales team. For instance, a Director of the salesteam is associated with a quantitative value of 10 indicating that theDirector's preference indication is of high importance. In contrast, aProgram Manager and a Sales Associate are associated with quantitativevalues of 5 and 2 indicating that the Program Manager's and SalesAssociate's preferences indications are of lower importance.

In this scenario, when the Director of the sales team “likes” a feeditem including information about ABC Corporation's quarterly salesfigures, then each employee in the sales team receives an informationupdate that the Director “likes” the quarterly sales figures. Since theDirector's “like” is associated with the quantitative value of 10, thenthe information update may appear in an employee's information updatewith an indication that the information update is of high importance.For instance, the information update may be colored red and appear asthe first feed item in an employee's information feed for ten days.

In contrast, when a Program Manager “likes” information associated witha feed item, then only the Sales Associates working directly for theProgram Manager receive an information update. Since a Program Manager'spreference indication has a weight of five, the information update maybe colored blue and appear as the first feed item in a Sales Associate'sinformation feed for five days. However, if a Sales Associate receivesinformation updates including information of the Director's and theProgram Manager's preference indications, then the information updatesappear in an order based on the weight associated with each preferenceindication. In this scenario, the information update includinginformation of the Director's preference indication would appear beforethe information update of the Program Manager's preference indication.By using a weight to determine the order to display feed items in aninformation feed, the Sales Associate can quickly view information ofhigher importance, without requiring the Sales Associate to parsethrough numerous feed items to determine that the Director and theProgram Manager “like” ABC Corporation's quarterly sales figures.

Although the example discloses associating a weight value based on auser's role in an organization, a weight value may be associated withother user profile information, group information or record information.In some implementation, a weight value may be associated to a contenttype as described in block 1504.

In some implementations, the entity information instruction may specifyinformation related to a group account in an online social networkingsystem. For example, the instruction may specify group information, suchas receiving a preference indication from a specific member of thegroup, the number of members, based on entities or data objects followedby the group, and other group related information. In otherimplementations, the entity information instruction may specifyinformation related to a record in an online social networking system,such as cases, account or opportunities.

In some implementations, the entity information instruction may includecomputer programming language code for determining whether a preferenceindication of a feed item is associated with one or more entityinformation designated by a custom rule. For example, the entityinformation instruction may include code that include operations todetermine whether a user “liked” a feed item by retrieving informationfrom various locations, such as a data record associated with a user'saccount, a data record associated with the feed item or other locationsin an on-demand computing services environment. These operations mayinclude instructions for querying a database to determine informationassociated with database records.

In some implementations, computer language code for determining whethera preference indication of a feed item is associated with one or moreentity information may be provided via user input. For instance, a usermay provide code that implements a computer programming factory objectto implement a custom rule.

In some implementations, computer programming language code fordetermining whether a preference indication is associated with one ormore entity information may be generated at a server. For instance, auser may indicate that a custom rule should be activated when apreference indication is received from a user who is of a specificentity type (e.g., a critic, artist or a fan as shown in FIG. 19). Inthis case, the server may determine executable code to access a computerprogramming factory object to create computer programming objects toprocess a preference indication for each specified entity type.

At 1510, an action instruction that defines one or more actions toperform when a preference indication is received is determined. In someimplementations, the action instruction may include any type ofinstructions capable of being performed within the social networkingsystem. For example, the instructions may include operations formodifying information associated with a feed item, creating a feed item,transmitting a message, creating or modifying a data object such as adatabase record, or some combination thereof.

In some implementations, one or more actions may be defined to modify adatabase record associated with a feed item when a preference indicationfor the feed item is received. For example, a user, Chet, indicates thathe “likes” a feed item including information about San Francisco Giantsbaseball team. When one or more servers receive Chet's preferenceindication, then one or more servers may execute operations to determinewhether the feed item is associated with a custom rule, such as aBaseballLike rule, to process Chet's preference indication. In thisexample, the BaseballLike rule defines one or more actions to update adatabase record associated with a feed item that includes informationabout baseball. The one or more actions may be defined to update thetotal number of user that “like” the San Francisco Giants. In thisexample, the total number of users is updated by one to account forChet's preference indication.

In some implementations, the action instructions may define operationsto determine whether one or more feed items are related. If one or morefeed items are related, then actions defined by the custom rule areperformed to modify information associated with the one or more relatedfeed items. Feed items may be identified as related based on a relevancemeasure. The relevance measure may be one or more operations todetermine whether there is a relationship among feed items. For example,a user may indicate a preference for a first feed item including contentabout Starbucks® coffee. In this example, the relevance measure may bebased on whether a second and a third feed item have the same content asthe first feed item. If the second and third feed items include contentregarding Starbucks® coffee, then the action instruction includeoperations to update data records associated with the first, second andthird feed items to indicate that the user endorses the content of therelated feed items. Various other measures may be applied to determinewhether one or more feed items are related, as described in greaterdetail in FIG. 18.

In some implementations, the action instruction may include computerprogramming language code defining actions to perform when a custom ruleis activated. For instance, the computer programming language code mayinclude operations to override abstract classes to perform the actionsdefined in a custom rule. In other instances, the computer programminglanguage code may include operations to create computer programmingfactory objects to perform specific actions based on whether a feed itemincludes a designated content type and/or based entity informationassociated with a preference indication as defined by a custom rule.

In some implementations, computer language code for specifying actionsto perform when a custom rule is activated may be provided via userinput. For instance, a user may provide code that includes operations toperform actions to implement a custom rule. For example, a user mayutilize the action interface 1926 of FIG. 19 to upload a script orexecutable code to perform custom actions defined by a user.

In some implementations, computer language code for specifying actionsto perform may be generated at a server. For instance, a user mayindicate that a custom rule should perform a specific action to processa preference indication. For example, a user may select the action“Related” utilizing the action interface 1926 of FIG. 19 to causeperformance of the custom rule in response to receiving a preferenceindication from a critic and a feed item that includes content about amusic album. In this example, the server may determine executable codeto determine whether one or more feed items are related and modifyinformation of feed items that are identified as being related. Inanother example, a user may select an action “Email followers” utilizingthe action interface 1926 of FIG. 19 to cause the performance of acustom rule when a critic's preference indication is received for a feeditem including a song. In this case, the server may determine executablecode to send an email message to the critic's followers and notify thecritic's followers that the critic endorses a particular song.

At 1512, display component instructions are determined. The displaycomponent instruction may include instruction to provide a mechanism toendorse information associated with a feed item. For instance, thedisplay component instructions may include instructions to create acustom display component. The custom display component may be aselectable graphical user interface that can be displayed on a clientdevice. The custom display component may be a selectable graphical userinterface button, link or any other user interface component that isoperable to transmit a preference indication for a feed item from aclient device to one or more servers described herein.

In some implementations, the display component instructions may specifya text label or image to display in a graphical user interface displaycomponent based on the content type and/or the entity informationspecified in blocks 1506 and 1508, respectively. FIG. 20 shows anexample of an information feed, according to some implementations. InFIG. 20, the information feed includes information update 2002.Information update 2002 includes content about the Michael Jackson'sThriller music album. Referring back to the MusicLike rule of FIG. 19,in this example, the display component 2004 includes an image of twothumbs up because Mathew Wong is a music critic and information update2002 includes information about a music album.

FIG. 20 also shows information updates 2006 and 2008 associated withcustom display components 2010 and 2012 based on the content types ofthe information updates. For instance, information update 2006 includesinformation related to Opportunity-123K associated with a custom rule.As such, information update 2006 includes a “Hi-Five!” display component2010 configured to allow Matthew to endorse the content of informationupdate 2006. In this scenario, if Matthew selects “Hi-Five!” displaycomponent 2010, then the custom rule may be configured to automaticallycreate a data record approving the discount for 1000 widgets.Information update 2008 includes information related to ABC Tech accountassociated with a custom rule. In this example, the display componentinstructions include operations to generate a display component 2012including an image of a badge.

FIG. 20 shows information update 2014 associated with custom displaycomponent 2016 based on entity information specified by a custom rule.In this example, Matthew Wong is member of the group Book Club. As such,the display component instructions include operations to generatedisplay component 2016 including an image of a book. In this example, ifMatthew selects display component 2016, then custom rule may includeoperations to automatically update a database record indicating thatMatthew will read Hunger Games this month. Additionally, Matthew mayautomatically receive messages related to the book Hunger Games. IfMatthew does not select display component 2016, then Matthew will notreceive any information updates related to Hunger Games.

In some implementations, the display component instructions may furtherinclude operations to update a display component in response todetecting a preference indication. For example, if Matthew Wongindicates that he “likes” the information update 2018 from Marc Benioff,then an updated display component may display a text label “Unlike” (notshown) to trigger the activation of a different custom rule. In anotherexample, if a music critic, John Smith, selects the two thumbs updisplay component 2102 to endorse the Michael Jackson's Thriller album2104, then an updated display component may display a two thumbs down2202 as shown in FIG. 22. The two thumbs down display component 2202 maybe configured to trigger the activation of another custom rule.

In some implementations, the display component instructions may includeoperations to generate other graphical user interface components. Forexample, in FIG. 21, the display component instructions may includeoperations to generate a display of a quantitative value 2106 of thenumber of users that endorsed Michael Jackson's Thriller music album.Here, the display instructions categorized the preference indicationsbased on whether an entity was a critic depicted with two thumbs up or anon-critic depicted with a thumbs up. In some implementations, thedisplay component instructions may include operations to generate avisual representation of the entities that have endorsed specificcontent of a feed item. In FIG. 21, a pie chart 2108 provides a visualrepresentation of the different entities that endorse the Thriller album2104.

In some implementations, the display component instructions may includecomputer programming language code defining graphical user interfacecomponents to display on a client device. For example, the computerprogramming language may include operations to override an abstractclass. In another example, the computer programming language may includeHTML snippets that execute on a client device to display a customdisplay component on a user interface displayed on the client device.

In some implementations, the display component instructions may beprovided via user input. For instance, a user may use the displaycomponent interface 1928 of FIG. 19 to upload computer programminglanguage code defining a custom display component and include operationsto respond to a selection of a custom display component.

In some implementations, computer language code for specifying a customdisplay component may be generated at a server. For instance, a user mayuse the display component interface 1928 of FIG. 19 to select an image,such as a DoubleThumbsUp.JPG or a Guitar.JPG, to display a customdisplay component. The server may determine executable code to generatea graphical user interface component using the selected image.

At 1514, the configured custom rule is stored. In some implementations,the configured custom rule may be stored on one or more storage mediums,such as any of the various databases and/or memory devices describedherein. The configured custom rule may be stored for later use and/oractivated when it is created.

FIG. 16 shows a flow diagram of a method 1600 for presenting a customrule, performed in accordance with one implementation. The method 1600provides a mechanism to present a custom display component associatedwith a feed item in an information feed to be displayed on a displaydevice.

In some implementations, the method 1600 may be performed at least inpart at a computing device configured to provide computing servicesassociated with a social networking system.

In some implementations, the method 1600 may be performed for each feeditem associated with a custom rule. In other implementations, the method1600 may be performed once for all feed items in an information feedassociated with one or more custom rules. In yet other implementations,some portions of the method 1600 may be performed once for all feeditems associated with a custom rule, while other portions may beperformed for each feed item associated with a custom rule.

At 1602, a request for an information feed including one or more feeditems to display on a client device is received by one or more servers.In some implementations, the request may be received as part of arequest for a web page or user interface component that contains thefeed. For example, a client machine may transmit a request for a page tothe server. As part of providing the requested web page, the server mayinitiate the request for the information feed.

At 1604, a feed item is selected to process for presentation on adisplay device. In some implementations, a feed item may be selected byquerying a feed table for information updates, comments, records orother data objects associated with a user account of a user thatrequested the information feed at 1602.

At 1606, it is determined whether the selected feed item is associatedwith a custom rule. In some implementations, the determination is madeby querying a database. For instance, a feed table is queried for a feeditem and each feed item may be associated with a unique custom ruleidentifier for a custom rule. For example, a custom rule identifier maysimply indicate a custom rule, such as “MusicLike” rule, or may be acomputer programming pointer that points to a computer programmingfactory object implementing a custom rule.

In some implementations, a determination of whether a feed item isassociated with a custom rule may be based on information associatedwith a user account, content included in a feed item and/or acombination thereof. For example, a database query may be performed fora list of custom rules and parameters may be passed to each custom ruleto determine whether a feed item is associated with the custom rule. Theparameters passed to a custom rule may be information associated with auser account (e.g., a critic, artist, fan), content included in a feeditem (e.g., music album, song, artist) and/or a combination thereof.Then, the custom rule, such as MusicLike rule, may return an indication,such as a “yes” or “no”, of whether a feed item is associated with acustom rule.

In some implementations, the determination is made based on informationincluded in the request described in block 1602. The request may specifya list of custom rules associated with one or more feeds items includedin the requested information feed. For example, the request may includea unique identifier associated with a MusicLike rule, such as“MusicLike.”

In some implementations, if it is determined that the selected feed itemis not associated with a custom rule, then method 1600 proceeds to block1612. Otherwise, method 1600 proceeds to block 1608.

At 1608, a display component based on the custom rule is generated forthe selected feed item to provide a mechanism to endorse contentincluded in a selected feed item. In some implementations, thegeneration of the display component may depend upon the configuration ofthe custom rule. For example, a custom display component may begenerated at a server in accordance with custom display componentinstructions specified as described in block 1512 of FIG. 15. Theprocedure for generating the display component may include operationssuch as identifying text or images for presentation of a displaycomponent, determining a value associated with a display component, suchas whether the display component is selected or not selected, retrievinginformation for creating the display component, and combining theidentified or retrieved information to create the custom displaycomponent. In another example, if the custom rule includes a pre-defineddisplay component, then the designated pre-defined display componentwill be generated. As another example, if the custom rule defines acustom display component via custom computer programming language code,then the custom display component is generated at 1608 by executing thecustom computer programming language code.

In some implementations, the generation of the display component may bebased on the content type of a feed item and/or entity informationdesignated by a custom rule. Referring back to FIG. 21, after it isdetermined that information feed 2104 is associated with a MusicLikerule, the rule executes operations to generate a two thumbs up displaycomponent 2102. In this example, a two thumbs up display component 2102is generated because John Smith is a music critic and information update2104 includes a music album in accordance with the MusicLike rule.Additionally, because John is a music critic, various other displaycomponents may be generated to provide John with additional features.For example, in FIG. 21, information update 2104 includes a pie graph2108 that provides a visual representation of the users that alsoendorse Michael Jackson's Thriller album. The information update 2104further includes a “Buy Album” GUI link that allows John to buy thealbum.

In contrast, in FIG. 23, a thumbs up display component 2302 isgenerated. FIG. 23 shows an example of an information feed, according tosome implementations. FIG. 23 shows an information feed of a user, JasonChan, who is a fan of music. The information feed includes aninformation update 2304 similar to the information update 2104 of FIG.21. In this case, because Jason is a music fan and not a music critic, athumbs up display component is generated in accordance with theMusicLike rule. Furthermore, Jason Chan's information update 2304 doesnot include the additional features provided to John Smith in FIG. 21because Jason is not a music critic. As FIGS. 21 and 23 illustrate, acustom rule may be configured to provide different display componentsand visual representation of feed items based on conditions andinformation designated by a custom rule.

At 1610, it is determined whether there are feed items associated with acustom rule that remain to be processed. In some implementations, thedetermination may be based at least in part on whether any unprocessedfeed items, such as information updates, comments or data objects remainthat are associated with the requested information feed.

At 1612, the requested information feed including the one or more feeditems are stored for presentation. In some implementations, therequested information feed may be stored on a storage medium or storagedevice. For instance, the requested information feed may be stored in adatabase, such as a multitenant database accessible to a plurality oftenants.

In some implementations, rather than storing the requested informationfeed for presentation at block 1612, the requested information feed isimmediately communicated and displayed on a client display device.

FIG. 17 shows a flow diagram of an example method 1700 for processing apreference indication, performed in accordance with someimplementations. In some implementations, the method 1700 may be used toactivate a custom rule that was configured using method 1500 shown inFIG. 15.

At 1702, a preference indication for a feed item is received. In someimplementations, a message including a preference indication for a feeditem may be communicated from a client device to one or more servers inresponse to detecting a trigger event. For example, a messagecommunicating a preference indication may be transmitted to one or moreservers when a selection of like button, posting of an informationupdate or a comment is detected.

In some implementations, the one or more servers may be configured toexecute operations to monitor feed items that include keywordsindicating a preference for a feed item. For example, when a feed itemincludes words such as “like,” “love,” or “dislike” then one or moreservers may execute operations to determine whether the feed item isassociated a custom rule as described below in block 1704.

At 1704, a determination is made whether the feed item is associatedwith a custom rule. In some implementations, a message is communicatedto one or more servers. The message may include a preference indicationfor a feed item and a unique identifier that identifies a custom rule.For example, a database query may be performed using the uniqueidentifier to search for an associated custom rule that is stored in acustom rule table that includes a list of various custom rules.

In some implementations, information associated with the feed item isused to determine whether the feed item is associated with a customrule. For example, a message is received by one or more servers thatincludes a preference indication and the content type of the feed itemand/or entity information (e.g., user account information, user profileinformation, group account). In this example, the content type and/orentity information may be passed as parameters to a computer programmingfactory object implementing a custom rule. The computer programmingfactory object may execute operations to determine whether the customrule processes a feed item with the specified parameters. Then, thecomputer programming factory object may return an indication, such as0/1 or yes/no, that the feed item is associated with a custom rule.

In some implementations, if it is determined that the first feed item isnot associated with a custom rule, then method 1700 may end. In otherimplementations, the method 1700 may proceed to create a record in adatabase of the preference indication of the feed item. In someimplementations, if it is determined that the feed item is associatedwith the custom rule, then method 1700 proceeds to block 1706.

At 1706, one or more actions are selected to perform based on the customrule. In some implementations, the selection of one or more actions mayinvolve executing operations defined by the action instructionsconfigured in block 1510 of method 1500. The implementation of theselection 1706 may depend upon the configuration of the custom rule. Forinstance, the selection of one or more actions may depend on variousparameters designated by a custom rule. The selection of an action maybe based on the content type of a feed item, entity information or acombination thereof. For example, referring to the MusicLike ruledescribed in FIGS. 15 and 19, the selection of one or more actions maybe based on whether the content includes information related to a musicalbum, a song or a musician. Then, the selection of one or more actionsmay be further narrowed based on whether a user is a critic, an artistor a fan.

In this example, the MusicLike rule may be implemented using a computerprogramming factory object as shown in FIG. 24 to select and performactions based on the custom rule. FIG. 24 provides an illustration of acustom rule (i.e., MusicLike rule) stored as a computer program factoryobject to process a preference indication, according to someimplementations. The system 2400 includes a client device 2402 incommunication with one or more servers 2404 or computing devices over anetwork 2406.

In some implementations, the client device 2402 includes a displaydevice 2408, a processor 2410 and a memory 2412. The client device 2402may be any device or group of devices capable of communication with theone or more servers 2404 and facilitating the display of, andinteraction with, user interface components such as an information feed.

The one or more servers 2404 are configured to store one or more customrules as one or more factory objects. In this example, the one or moreservers store the MusicLike rule of FIG. 15 as a MusicLike Factoryobject 2414 to process a preference indication. The MusicLike Factoryobject 2414 is configured to create other instances of computerprogramming objects as specified in the configuration of the MusicLikerule to perform one or more actions.

In some implementations, the client device 2402 generates acommunication 2416 requesting an information feed. The communication2416 may be generated based on a user action, such as a request for aweb page that includes a user interface component displaying theinformation feed. Alternately, or additionally, the communication 2416may be generated based on a computer generated action. For example,computer code running on the client device 2402 may trigger thecommunication 2416 requesting the information feed based on a detectedcondition.

In some implementations, the one or more servers 2404 transmit theinformation feed 2418 to the client device 2402. In some instances, theinformation feed may be transmitted to the client device 2402 even inthe absence of an explicit request for the information feed from theclient device. In other instances, the client device 2402 may beexecuting a web browser that is displaying a dynamic web page incommunication with the one or more servers 2404. The one or more servers2404 may then update the web page, or a portion of the web page, basedon an event or condition detected at the one or more servers 2404. Insome instances, an information feed may be provided to the client devicewithout reloading a web page and/or user interface component displayedat the client machine (e.g., in a web browser).

In some implementations, when a user at the client device 2402 indicatesa preference of a feed item, then a message 2420 including thepreference indication is transmitted from the client device to the oneor more servers 2404.

In some implementations, the message 2420 may be received by one or moreservers 2404 as described in block 1702 of FIG. 17. The message mayinclude one or more of the following information: a unique identifierassociated with a custom rule, information related to the feed item(e.g., content type), and/or information related to the user at theclient device (e.g., profile information, status information).

In some implementations, the one or more servers 2404 may receive themessage 2420 including the preference indication. The one or moreservers may perform operations to determine whether the feed item isassociated with a custom rule based on the information included in themessage as described in block 1704 of FIG. 17. In this example, if it isdetermined that a feed item is associated with a MusicLike rule, thenthe one or more servers may execute operations based on the MusicLikeFactory object 2414 to create an instance of a computer programmingobject. The instance of a computer programming object may includeoperations to process a preference indication based on the content typeand entity information of a feed item. As such, if a preferenceindication is received from a Critic and the feed item includes a musicalbum, then a Music Album Critic MusicLike Object 2422 is created toprocess the preference indication. Object 2422 includes displaycomponent instruction 2424 and action instruction 2426 that may includeinstructions as described in blocks 1510 and 1512 of FIG. 15. Onceobject 2422 is created, then one or more actions defined by the actioninstruction 2426 are performed to process a preference indication.However, if a preference indication is received from an artist, then theMusicLike Factory object may execute operations to create the MusicAlbum Artist MusicLike Object 2428 to process a preference indication.If a preference indication is received from a fan instead, then a MusicAlbum Fan MusicLike Object 2430 is created and the actions designated byobject 2430 are performed to process a preference indication.

Although FIG. 24 shows three programming objects to process a preferenceindication based on the content type and entity information of a feeditem, the MusicLike Factory object may be configured to create anynumber of objects to process a preference indication. For example, theMusicLike Factory may create a separate object to process a preferenceindication for a feed item including a song and a preference indicationassociated with a critic, artist or a fan. Furthermore, each computerprogramming object may further specify display component instructionsand action instructions to perform in response to receiving a preferenceindication.

Returning to block 1706 of FIG. 17, if a custom rule defines theselection of one or more actions via a custom computer programminglanguage code, then the selection of one or more actions may be made byexecuting the custom computer programming language code.

At 1708, one or more actions to modify information associated with thefeed item based on the custom rule are performed. In someimplementations, performing one or more actions may involve executingoperations defined by the action instructions configured in block 1510of method 1500. For example, the one or more action include modifyinginformation associated with a feed item, creating a feed item,transmitting a message, creating or modifying a data object such as adatabase record, or some combination thereof.

In some implementations, performing of one or more action may dependupon the configuration of the custom rule. For example, if the customrule includes adding a designated pre-defined action, the designatedpre-defined action will be performed. As another example, if the customrule defines one or more actions via custom computer programminglanguage code, then one or more action may be performed at 1708 byexecuting the custom computer programming language code.

In some implementations, as described in greater detail below, one ormore actions performed may include a determination of whether a furtherfeed item should be modified. The determination may include adetermination of whether a further feed item of the information feed isrelated to the feed item identified at block 1702 based on a relevancemeasure. The relevance measure may be based on one or more operations todetermine whether there is a relationship among one or more feed itemsof an information feed. For example, the relevance measure may be basedon whether content type of the further feed item is the same as thecontent type of the feed item identified at block 1502. If the contenttype is the same, then the further feed item is identified as a relatedfeed item. As such, the one or more actions defined by the custom ruleare executed to modify information of the feed item identified at block1702 and to modify information of the further feed item. In anotherexample, the relevance measure may be based on whether an entity thatindicated a preference for the feed item at block 1702 also follows afurther feed item in the information feed. If the entity follows thefurther feed item, then the further feed item is identified as a relatedfeed item and is selected and modified as defined by the custom rule.

FIG. 18 shows a flow diagram of an example method of 1800 for selectingone or more actions based on the custom rule. In some implementations,the method 1800 may be used to select actions configured as discussedwith respect to a custom rule configuration method 1500 shown in FIG.15. In some implementations, the method of 1800 may be performed by oneor more servers or computing device described herein.

At 1802, a determination is made whether a further feed item of aninformation feed is related to a feed item associated with thepreference indication (i.e., a first feed item) received at block 1702discussed in method 1700 based on a relevance measure. In someimplementations, a relevance measure may be the result of one or moreoperations that may be applied to determine whether a first feed itemand a further feed item are related.

In some implementations, at block 1804, one or more operations may beused to determine a relationship between one or more feed items. Forexample, if a first feed item and a further feed item have the samecontent type, then the first feed item and the further feed item aredetermined to be related. As such, one or more actions are executed tomodify information associated with the first and further feed item asspecified by a custom rule. For instance, referring back to FIG. 21,when John Smith, a music critic, selects the two thumbs up displaycomponent 2102, the MusicLike rule is activated. The MusicLike rule maybe configured to search for feed items that are related to informationupdate 2104 by comparing the content of the information update 2104 toother feed items in the information feed. In this scenario, the rule mayexecute operations to query a database for other feed items that includesongs from the Michael Jackson's Thriller album. If a feed item includesa song from the album, then the information associated with the feeditem is updated to indicate that John Smith also endorses the song fromthe album.

FIG. 22 shows an example GUI displaying an information feed, accordingto some implementations. FIG. 22 shows an information feed after JohnSmith endorses the Michael Jackson's Thriller album 2200 in FIG. 22. Inthis example, the information update 2200 is updated to indicate thatJohn Smith endorses Michael Jackson's Thriller album. Here, the numberof critics 2204 that gave the album two thumbs up is increased from300,000 to 300,001 to reflect that John Smith also endorses the musicalbum. Additionally, John Smith's endorsement is automaticallyassociated with information updates 2206 and 2208 that include songsBillie Jean and Beat It. Information update 2206 and 2208 are updated toindicate 2210 and 2212 that John Smith also endorses the songs from thealbum.

In another example, one or more feed items may be determined to berelated by analyzing data attached to, identified, or otherwiseassociated with a feed item, such as documents, images, audio files,video files, and other files to determine that feed items have the samecontent type.

In some implementations, determining whether one or more feed items arerelated may be based on information independent of the content includedin a feed item. For example, the relevance measure may be based oninformation of the user that indicated a preference for a first feeditem. For instance, a relevance measure may be based on whether a userfollows a further feed item. If the user follows a further feed item,then the custom rule may include instructions to automatically updateinformation associated with the further feed item to indicate that theuser also endorses the further feed item. In some instances, a relevancemeasure may be based on whether a user's profile information includesinformation about the further feed item. For example, a user's statusinformation may state “I love starbucks coffee!” Then, a custom rule mayinclude instructions to automatically endorse all feed items includinginformation about Starbucks® coffee on the user's behalf.

In other instances, the relevance measure may include an operation todetermine whether a further feed item is related based an entity'shistorical information. For instance, one or more servers may storeinformation of recent search activity of a user. The recent searchactivity may reveal that the user was searching specific feed itemsincluding specific content or feed items authored by a specific user,group or record. As such, the specific feed items may be identified as arelevant feed item and information associated with the specific feeditem may be modified based on a custom rule. For instance, theinformation associated with the specific feed item may be updated toindicate that the user “likes” the specific feed item. In this example,a time frame may be defined to analyze a certain amount of historicalinformation associated with a user's search. For instance, the timeframe may be specified as searches performed in the past hour, past day,past week, past month, or past year. Additionally, a feed item may beidentified as relevant based on the frequency a feed item is searchedfor by a user. For instance, if a user, Brenda, has performed severalsearches for information updates posted by basketball player, JeremyLin, then the frequency of searches may trigger the activation of acustom rule. The frequency of searches may be an indication that theBrenda “likes” Jeremy Lin. As such, the custom rule may be configured toautomatically update all information updates posted by Jeremy Lin toindicate that Brenda “likes” Jeremy Lin's posts.

In some implementations, numerical weights can be applied to any one ormore of the various operations, based on importance of the particularoperation in the implementation. The weighting information may be usedto indicate a degree of relatedness between one or more feed items. Forexample, weighted values can be summed to determine whether the weightedsum meets, exceeds, or is less than a designated threshold value. If afeed item meets the threshold value, then the feed item may beidentified as a related feed item and information associated withrelated feed item may be modified in accordance with a custom rule.Otherwise, the feed item may not be identified as related feed item.

In some implementations, various GUIs can be constructed and madeavailable to users to personalize and customize the relevance measuresto determine whether one or more feed items are related. For example, asystem administrator or other user can personally select the one or moreoperations to apply and thus define parameters to determine a relevancemeasure or other association between a first recipient and an entity. Inone example, a pre-defined set of operations exists, and a user selectsone or more of the pre-defined set. For instance, in FIG. 19, a user mayuse the action interface 1926 to select the pre-defined set ofoperations “Related.” In other examples, a user inputs and customizesthe user's own operations. In one implementation, a user interfaceprovides graphical slide bars to set weights applied to the selectedoperations. A list of operations can be presented in a GUI with a checkbox beside each operation for the user to select. The user can thenselect whether the user wants to apply weights and, if so, a pane withthe slide bar mentioned above appears. In some instances, a user has acustom box in which the user defines his or her own operations. Suchinterfaces can be operated by the author of a post, systemadministrator, or other user.

If it is determined that one or more feed items are related at blocks1802 and 1804, then method 1800 proceeds to block 1806. Otherwise,method 1800 proceeds to block 1808.

At 1806, one or more actions to modify information associated with thefurther feed item based on the custom rule is performed. In someimplementations, the operations to modify a further feed item may besimilar to executing the one or more actions as described above withrespect to block 1708 of method 1700.

At 1808, one or more actions to modify information associated with firstfeed item based on the custom rule is performed as described above withrespect to block 1708 of method 1700.

At 1810, the modified information is stored for presentation. In someimplementations, the modified information is stored on a storage mediumor a storage device for presentation in an information feed. Forinstance, the modified information may be stored in a database, such asa multitenant database accessible to a plurality of tenants.

In some implementations, rather than storing the modified informationfor presentation at block 1810, the modified information may beimmediately communicated and displayed on a client device.

The specific details of the specific aspects of implementationsdisclosed herein may be combined in any suitable manner withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the disclosed implementations.However, other implementations may be directed to specificimplementations relating to each individual aspect, or specificcombinations of these individual aspects.

While the disclosed examples are often described herein with referenceto an implementation in which an on-demand database service environmentis implemented in a system having an application server providing afront end for an on-demand database service capable of supportingmultiple tenants, the present implementations are not limited tomulti-tenant databases nor deployment on application servers.Implementations may be practiced using other database architectures,i.e., ORACLE®, DB2® by IBM and the like without departing from the scopeof the implementations claimed.

It should be understood that some of the disclosed implementations canbe embodied in the form of control logic using hardware and/or usingcomputer software in a modular or integrated manner. Other ways and/ormethods are possible using hardware and a combination of hardware andsoftware.

Any of the software components or functions described in thisapplication may be implemented as software code to be executed by aprocessor using any suitable computer language such as, for example,Java, C++ or Perl using, for example, conventional or object-orientedtechniques. The software code may be stored as a series of instructionsor commands on a computer-readable medium for storage and/ortransmission, suitable media include random access memory (RAM), a readonly memory (ROM), a magnetic medium such as a hard-drive or a floppydisk, or an optical medium such as a compact disk (CD) or DVD (digitalversatile disk), flash memory, and the like. The computer-readablemedium may be any combination of such storage or transmission devices.Computer-readable media encoded with the software/program code may bepackaged with a compatible device or provided separately from otherdevices (e.g., via Internet download). Any such computer-readable mediummay reside on or within a single computing device or an entire computersystem, and may be among other computer-readable media within a systemor network. A computer system, or other computing device, may include amonitor, printer, or other suitable display for providing any of theresults mentioned herein to a user.

While various implementations have been described herein, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and notlimitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present applicationshould not be limited by any of the implementations described herein,but should be defined only in accordance with the following andlater-submitted claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of processing a preference indicationfor a feed item of an information feed, the method comprising:receiving, at one or more servers, the preference indication for thefeed item, the preference indication being an indication that an entityendorses information associated with the feed item; determining, at theone or more servers, whether the feed item is associated with a customrule, the custom rule defining one or more actions operative to modifyinformation associated with feed items of designated one or more contenttypes; selecting, at the one or more servers, one or more actions toperform based on an identified content type of the feed item in responseto determining that the feed item is associated with the custom rule;and performing, at the one or more servers, the selected one or moreactions to modify the information associated with the feed item.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the custom rule further defines a customdisplay component operable to transmit the preference indication for thefeed item from a client device to the one or more servers.
 3. The methodof claim 2, wherein the custom display component is a selectablegraphical component capable of being displayed on a display of theclient device.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the one ormore actions to perform is further based on status information of theentity.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the one or moreactions to perform is further based on profile information of theentity.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the selected one ormore actions includes determining a quantitative value to represent thepreference indication for the feed item.
 7. The method of claim 6,wherein the quantitative value is weighted based on status informationof the entity.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the selectedone or more actions includes: determining whether a further feed item ofthe information feed is related to the feed item based on a relevancemeasure; and modifying information associated with the further feed itemin response to the determination that the further feed item is relatedto the feed item.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining whetherthe further feed item is related to the feed item based on the relevancemeasure includes one or more operations selected from the groupconsisting of: determining whether content type of the further feed itemis the same as the content type of the feed item, determining whetherthe entity follows the further feed item, determining whether profileinformation of the entity includes information related to the furtherfeed item, determining whether the entity indicated a preference for thefurther feed item, and determining whether historical informationrelated to the entity includes information related to the further feeditem.
 10. The method recited in claim 1, the one or more servers beingsituated in an on-demand service environment through which a pluralityof organizations can access on-demand computing services.
 11. The methodrecited in claim 10, wherein the feed item is stored in a multi-tenantdatabase accessible to a plurality of tenants in communication with theon-demand service environment.
 12. One or more computing devices forprocessing a preference indication for a feed item of an informationfeed, the one or more computing devices comprising: one or moreprocessors capable of executing instructions to: receive the preferenceindication for the feed item, the preference indication being anindication that an entity endorses information associated with the feeditem; determine whether the feed item is associated with a custom rule,the custom rule defining one or more actions operative to modifyinformation associated with feed items of designated one or more contenttypes; select one or more actions to perform based on a content type ofthe feed item in response to determining that the feed item isassociated with the custom rule; and perform the selected one or moreactions to modify the information associated with the feed item.
 13. Theone or more computing devices of claim 12, wherein selecting the one ormore actions to perform is further based on status information of theentity.
 14. The one or more computing devices of claim 12, whereinperforming the selected one or more actions includes determining aquantitative value to represent the preference indication for the feeditem.
 15. The one or more computing devices of claim 14, wherein thequantitative value is weighted based on status information of theentity.
 16. The one or more computing devices of claim 12, wherein thequantitative value is determined using a multiplier based on profileinformation of the entity.
 17. A non-transitory tangiblecomputer-readable storage medium storing instructions executable by acomputing device to perform a method of processing a preferenceindication for a feed item of an information feed, the methodcomprising: receiving, at one or more servers, the preference indicationfor the feed item, the preference indication being an indication that anentity endorses information associated with the feed item; determining,at the one or more servers, whether the feed item is associated with acustom rule, the custom rule defining one or more actions operative tomodify information associated with feed items of designated one or morecontent types; selecting, at the one or more servers, one or moreactions to perform based on a content type of the feed item in responseto determining that the feed item is associated with the custom rule;and performing, at the one or more servers, the selected one or moreactions to modify the information associated with the feed item.
 18. Thenon-transitory tangible computer-readable medium of claim 17, whereinselecting the one or more actions to perform is further based on statusinformation of the entity.
 19. The non-transitory tangiblecomputer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein performing the selectedone or more actions includes: determining whether a further feed item ofthe information feed is related to the feed item based on a relevancemeasure; and modifying information associated with the further feed itemin response to the determination that the further feed item is relatedto the feed item.
 20. The non-transitory tangible computer-readablemedium of claim 21, wherein determining whether the further feed item isrelated to the feed item based on the relevance measure includes one ormore operations selected from the group consisting of: determiningwhether content type of the further feed item is the same as the contenttype of the feed item, determining whether the entity follows thefurther feed item, determining whether profile information of the entityincludes information related to the further feed item, determiningwhether the entity indicated a preference for the further feed item, anddetermining whether historical information related to the entityincludes information related to the further feed item.